Lacy v. Comp. Comm'r

• Decision Date: 15 January 1929
• Docket Number: (No. 6417.)
• Citation: 146 S.E. 375
• Court: West Virginia Supreme Court
• Parties: LACY. v. COMPENSATION COMMISSIONER.

146 S.E. 375

LACY.
v.
COMPENSATION COMMISSIONER.

(No. 6417.)

Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

Jan. 15, 1929.

[146 S.E. 375](Syllabus by the Court.)

Appeal from Ruling of Commission.

Proceeding under the Workmen's Compensation Law by Arnold Lacy. From a ruling of the Commission of Appeals approving the termination of compensation by the Compensation Commissioner, claimant appeals. Affirmed.

J. Sherman Lilly, of Charleston, for appellant.

Howard B. Lee, Atty. Gen., and R. Dennis Steed, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.

MAXWELL, J. On the 9th day of September, 1926, petitioner was injured about the chest and otherwise by being squeezed between a mine car and the roof of the mine where he was an employee of the Coal River Collieries Company, at Prenter, W. Va. The chest injury affected the right lung, necessitating an incision for drainage. There followed a partial collapse of the lower half of the right lung. He also suffered from an attack of pneumonia which greatly weakened his condition.

At the expiration of about 19 months following the injury, during 52 weeks of which time the petitioner had been allowed compensation at the rate of $13.61 per week, the allowance was terminated by the compensation commissioner on the ground that physical examination failed to reveal that the petitioner had any ratable permanent disability as the result of his injury. On appeal to the commission created by section 57, c. 68, Acts' of the Legislature of 1925, the procedure of the compensation commissioner was ap proved. From the said action of the commission this appeal is prosecuted.

In an affidavit of the 21st of May, 1927, the petitioner says that his lungs are weal and that he gets tired easily when he walks around. Statements of physicians made upon examinations of the petitioner several months subsequent to the injury follow:

On the 5th of March, 1927, Dr. J. B. Lohan, who had first treated the petitioner on the day of his injury, stated: "This is to certify that I have today examined Arnold Lacy of MacCorkle, West Virginia, and find that he still suffers from myocardial disease and collapsed base of right lung, which are the result of an accident last September, for which I also treated him. In my opinion Mr. Lacy should not work for at least six months." On the 11th of April, 1927, Dr. R. H. Walker, chief medical examiner of the workmen's compensation department, and who had operated on claimant a few days following his accident in September, 1926, again...