Lombardo v. Fed. Shipbldg. & Dry Dock Co.

• Decision Date: 11 June 1946
• Citation: 47 A.2d 587
• Parties: LOMBARDO v. FEDERAL SHIPBUILDING & DRY DOCK CO.
• Court: New Jersey Court of Common Pleas

47 A.2d 587

LOMBARDO

v.FEDERAL SHIPBUILDING & DRY DOCK CO.

Court of Common Pleas of New Jersey, Hudson County.

June 11, 1946.

Workmen's Compensation proceedings by Frank Lombardo, employee, opposed by Federal Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, former employer. From a decision of the Compensation Bureau denying compensation, the claimant appeals.

Affirmed.

Jacob E. Max, of Jersey City, for petitioner-appellant.

Stryker, Tams & Horner, of Newark, for respondent-appellee.

DREWEN, Judge.

Petition was filed in the Compensation Bureau for an award to cover what the petition describes as an ‘injury to the left shoulder and arm resulting in permanent disability affecting the left arm.’

Petitioner's work included the scraping of wall and ceiling surfaces with a wire brush. He is of low stature, five feet and one inch, and he testified that when he was assigned to a particular job of ceiling scraping on December 2, 1944, he complained to the foreman that the scaffold was too low for his reach; that notwithstanding this the height of the scaffold was permitted to remain unadjusted; that in doing his utmost to perform the task assigned, and while in the act of reaching and scraping, he heard his left shoulder snap. He went to the first aid station, where his shoulder was strapped and he there had one or two subsequent treatments. On the last occasion of his going to the first aid station for treatment he says he was required to wait so long that he returned no more. He testified that the shoulder bothers him when he moves it, when the weather is a little cold or damp.

About a week after the alleged accident he was discharged. One month later he was employed by an enterprise which he describes as ‘the East Coast’ and also at the Bayonne Naval Base, in both of which jobs his work was painting. After being last treated at the first aid station he had no treatment by a physician. At the time of the hearing he was wearing no strap or other healing or protective device for his shoulder.

The medical report of Dr. Alpert was stipulated into evidence. His examination was made March 5, 1945, the report of which was: ‘There is some tenderness in the left supra-clavicular area with incomplete extension of the arm at the shoulder. Suggest X-ray of the affected area and estimate existing disability at 10 per cent. of the arm. Diagnosis of probable residual bursitis.’

Also stipulated into evidence was a report of examination made by Dr. Urban. It reads as...