Lee v. International Harvester Co.

• Decision Date: 13 December 1963
• Citation: 373 S.W.2d 418
• Parties: Let (Lett) LEE, Appellant, v. INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER COMPANY et al., Appellees.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky

Page 418

373 S.W.2d 418

Let (Lett) LEE, Appellant, v. INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER COMPANY et al., Appellees.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

Dec. 13, 1963.

Grant F. Knuckles, Pineville, for appellant.

William A. Rice, Harlan, for appellees.

PALMORE, Judge.

Let (Lett) Lee appeals from a judgment of the Harlan Circuit Court affirming an order of the Workmen's Compensation Board adopting the findings of its referee and denying his claim for compensation.

The critical question is whether the evidence that Lee sustained an injury arising out of and in the course of his employment was conclusive, leaving the Board no alternative to decide otherwise.

Lee is substantially disabled from what the doctors believe is a herniated disc. ¹ He says that while he was lifting a heavy metal pan in appellee's coal mine on June 14, 1960, he felt a sudden pain or 'catch' in his back and could not do any more lifting. He worked during the remainder of his shift with the aid of a pry bar, but was unable to return to the job thereafter. He reported to the camp physician, a Dr. Mullen, on June 20, 1960. Following preliminary observation and treatment over a period of several days the doctor put him in the hospital and eventually referred him to specialists, who confirmed the diagnosis.

At the time he claims to have sustained the injury Lee was 46 years old and had been employed by the appellee company for a number of years. He had worked steadily and was considered to be a good workman. He testified that he had never before experienced trouble with or lost work because of his back. On the other hand, Dr. Mullen said Lee's record showed a history of backaches at frequent intervals beginning in 1946 or 1947, and that on October 21, 1960, 'the patient stated to me that he had a crushed and bruised back, and I specifically asked him then directly when this injury, and so forth, occurred, and at that time he stated to me he could remember no injury to his back and this statement appears at other times back through the years. On each occasion, when he complained of his back, there was a brief note of 'no history of specific injury." Asked whether Lee at any time on or before October 21, 1960, had told him he was injured in the mine on June 14, 1960, while trying to lift a belt pan, Dr. Mullen replied, 'No, I have no record of his reporting for a back injury at any time.'

Dr. Inge, an orthopedic surgeon of Knoxville, Tennessee, to whom Lee had been referred by Dr. Mullen, first examined him on July 21, 1960, at which time Lee gave a case history to the effect that on June 20, 1960, when he started to go to work a pain struck him in the low part of his back radiating toward his right buttock. It was so severe that he did not go on to his job but instead reported to the Benham hospital. 'Now as to what he did to start that pain,' Dr. Inge testified, 'I have no record. * * * The patient says he has had attacks of pain in his low back and right buttock region for several years since working in the coal mine but never as severe as on June 20.' This witness was of the opinion that if Lee had mentioned having strained himself while lifting something heavy, he, Dr. Inge, would have recorded it in the case history.

Lee's supervisor and fellow employes working with him on June 14, 1960, did not recall any injury to or complaint by him at the time. Their first knowledge of his indisposition came through his failure to report for duty on the next working day.

Though retained by the company, Dr. Mullen also served on a referral basis for the union welfare fund and engaged in private practice in the community where the mine was located. Medical services rendered to mine employes were paid for by the company if occasioned by industrial accident and by the welfare fund if not. The import of Dr. Mullen's testimony is that he did not, at the time of treating Lee and referring him to the specialists, consider the ailment to be 'industrially connected.' Though Dr. Mullen was inclined to think of a ruptured disc in terms of a sudden injury, Dr. Inge testified that such a condition, though it may result from an acute injury, frequently comes on through degeneration of the disc by prolonged and repeated minor injuries over a period of time, without a sudden blow or strain.

Relying very largely on the case of Greathouse Co. v. Yenowine, 302 Ky. 159, 193 S.W.2d 758 (1946), counsel for Lee contends that the defensive evidence was merely negative in character, and without probative force to disprove the occurrence or sudden manifestation of the injury on June 14, 1960, as related by Lee. Though we are unable to accept this viewpoint, especially as to the testimony bearing on his case history, the approach itself is unsound, because it is premised on the assumption that once a claimant produces substantial evidence sufficient to support an award the Board is bound to find in...