Olin Indus., Inc. v. Indus. Comm'n

• Decision Date: 14 November 1946
• Docket Number: No. 29465.,29465.
• Citation: 69 N.E.2d 305,394 Ill. 593
• Parties: OLIN INDUSTRIES, Inc., v. INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

394 Ill. 593

69 N.E.2d 305

OLIN INDUSTRIES, Inc.,

v.INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION et al.

No. 29465.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Sept. 18, 1946.

Rehearing Denied Nov. 14, 1946.

Error to Circuit Court, Madison County; Edward F. Bareis, judge.

Proceedings under the Workmen's Compensation Law by Paul Weese, employee, opposed by Western Cartridge Company, employer, now Olin Industries, Inc. The circuit court, on certiorari, reversed and set aside the decision of the Industrial Commission awarding compensation to the employee, and entered judgment for Olin Industries, Inc., and the employee brings error.

Reversed and remanded with directions.

Meyer & Meyer, of East St. Louis, for plaintiff in error.

Verlie, Eastman & Schlafly, and Emerson Baetz, all of Alton, for defendant in error.

FULTON, Justice.

A writ of error was granted in this case to review the judgment of the circuit court of Madison county. Upon a hearing the arbitrator made an award in favor of plaintiff in error, Paul Weese, and against the defendant in error, Western Cartridge Co. (now Olin Industries, Inc.) in the sum of $21.15 per week for 29 4/7 weeks for temporary total disability and the further sum of $600 for medical and hospital expense. On appeal to the Industrial Commission this award was set aside and an award made in favor of Weese allowing him compensation in the sum of $21.15 per week for 41-5/7 weeks for temporary total disability and the additional sum of $600 for medical and hospital services. The circuit court of Madison county, on certiorari, reversed and set aside the decision of the Industrial Commission and entered judgment for the defendant in error.

The plaintiff in error contends that the decision of the Industrial Commission was supported by competent evidence and that the circuit court erred in holding such decision to be contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence and in reversing and setting it aside. It is his claim that he was injured by reason of an accident arising out of and in the course of his employment on October 6, 1943.

Weese testified that he was 31 years of age and had three children under 16 years of age. He had been employed by the Western Cartridge Company for a period of six years. He had sustained an injury to his back on January 8, 1942, and was absent from work until March 24, 1942. From that date until October 6, 1943, with the exception of five days in July when he was absent from his work on account of his back, he worked for nearly twenty months without losing any time and was able to do his work during all of that period.

On the date of the injury of October 6, 1943, he was placing insulation on a steel pipe located about five feet above the roof of the company's plant, and while so employed he started to get down from the pipe to the roof when his foot slipped and he reached back and grabbed with his arms while his feet went down on the slate roof. When he got down on the roof his back was hurting so bad he could not stand on his feet. He laid down on the roof for half an hour because he could not get up. At the end of that time he got up and went to the company first aid where he told the company physician, Dr. Montgomery, that he had hurt himself on the roof of the plant about 45 minutes before that time. It was then 10:30 A. M. Dr. Montgomery told him Dr. McCuiston would be there at two o'clock and for him to come back. When he saw Dr. McCuiston the latter asked him if he had been wearing his belt which the company supplied at the time of his former injury. From that point on Dr. McCuiston took care of him. He could not get out of bed the next morning and on the fourth day after the accident the doctor sent an ambulance after him and took him to the company's office. The doctor told him to lie on a hard bed and also gave him an order for a new belt. He went back home and went to bed, and it was 12 days before he was able to get up. Dr. McCuiston sent the ambulance for him on another occasion and then sent Weese to St. Joseph's hospital in Alton and there put a plaster cast on his body from the arms down to the hips. He wore that seven days but it did not do him any good and the doctor cut it off. It was then about time for a compensation check and he went down to see Joe Stephan, the supervisor of compensation for the company, and was told he had nothing coming; that his injury was caused from his prior accident which had been settled and they did not have to pay anything like that. Also, that the company would not have to doctor him. Dr. McCuiston had made an appointment for him to see a specialist in St. Louis but later cancelled the appointment. He was still suffering and unable to get around so he employed a lawyer who sent him to Dr. Fritsch, a bone specialist in East St. Louis. This doctor sent him to a hospital where he remained 24 days. Dr. Fritsch operated on his spine and was still treating him at the time of the hearing. After the operation he gradually recovered and commenced work with the Shell Oil Company on July 24, 1944.

Dr. Fritsch testified that he first saw Weese on November 7, 1943. At that time he was walking with a marked limp and had a severe sciatic limitation of motion of the spine. He had severe sciatica and flexion contracture of the hip. He had atrophy, that is, his leg was smaller. The pelvis was tilted, which caused the shortening of about an inch of the left leg and he had scoliosis of the back because of the sciatica. There was one inch of atrophy of the left thigh and a half inch of atrophy of the left calf.

After examination and treatment Dr. Fritsch diagnosed Weese's condition in simple language as a pressure on the spinal cord and recommended surgery to correct the difficulty. Weese was not improving and decided to submit to an operation. A little later the operation was performed by removing a hypertrophied ligamentum flavum. After three weeks in the hospital Weese was relieved of the pain he had had. It was the doctor's opinion that the condition might have been or could have been caused by a fall or a trauma, and it might have been or could have been aggravated by a second fall or trauma. He further testified that Weese...