Mitsch v. Stauffer Chemical Co.
| Decision Date | 03 November 1972 |
| Citation | 487 S.W.2d 938 |
| Parties | Aubrey Thomas MITSCH, Appellant, v. STAUFFER CHEMICAL COMPANY et al., Appellees. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky |
John Frith Stewart, Louisville, for appellant.
R. I. McIntosh, Woodward, Hobson & Fulton, Louisville, for appellee Stauffer Chemical Co.
Gemma M. Harding, Dept. of Labor, Louisville, for appellee Special Fund.
CULLEN, Commissioner.
On March 23, 1970, an order was entered granting Aubrey Thomas Mitsch an open-end award of workmen's compensation for total permanent disabillty attributable to a herniated-disc condition arising from an accident that occurred in July 1967. In January 1971 the employer moved to reopen the award on a change of conditions, alleging that Mitsch had worked regularly from July 28, 1970, to January 12, 1971, at his occupation as an electrician. At the hearing on the motion it was shown in evidence that Mitsch had worked as an electrician, for full compensation plus some overtime, from October 1969 to January 12, 1971.
The Workmen's Compensation Board reopened the original award and entered a new award allowing Mitsch compensation for 50 percent permanent partial disability only, giving the employer credit for payments previously made. On appeal by Mitsch to the circuit court, judgment was entered upholding the board's action. Mitsch has appealed from that judgment to this court.
Mitsch argues that an award can be reopened on the ground of a change of condition only upon a showing of a change of 'physical' condition, and by this he means a change of functional disability. We do not agree. Workmen's compensation is for occupational disability. Osborne v. Johnson, Ky., 432 S.W.2d 800. As was said in Kilgore v. Goose Creek Coal Company, Ky., 392 S.W.2d 78 at 80:
The board's determination of the extent of occupational disability, from evidence as to the extent of functional disability, often is no more than an educated guess. The board undertakes to decide what the probabilities are as to the workman's future capability to engage in gainful employment. Particularly was this true in the instant case, where...
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Holman Enterprise Tobacco Warehouse v. Carter
...Ky., 471 S.W.2d 5. The Board has the responsibility to translate functional disability into occupational disability. Mitsch v. Stauffer Chemical Company, Ky., 487 S.W.2d 938. However, the Board was not required to translate the percentage of functional disability into the same percentage of......
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Colwell v. Dresser Instrument Div.
...of conditions." As interpreted by the courts in Continental Air Filter Co. v. Blair, 681 S.W.2d 427 (Ky.1984); Mitsch v. Stauffer Chemical Co., 487 S.W.2d 938 (Ky.1972); and Gro-Green Chemical Co. v. Allen, 746 S.W.2d 69 (Ky. App.1987), "change of conditions" referred to a change of medical......
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Peabody Coal Co. v. Gossett, 90-SC-955-WC
...of Continental Air Filter Company v. Blair, Ky., 681 S.W.2d 427 (1984), and that it codified the holdings of Mitsch v. Stauffer Chemical Company, Ky., 487 S.W.2d 938 (1972), and Gro-Green Chemical Company v. Allen, Ky.App., 746 S.W.2d 69 (1987). Relying upon the occupational disability stan......
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Beale v. Rolley
...should not be equated for purposes of the reopening statute. "There are authorities which support our view. In Mitsch v. Stauffer Chemical Company, Ky., 487 S.W.2d 938 (1972), the court specifically rejected the argument that a change in condition under the reopening statute means a change ......