Pripich v. State Comp. Comm'r

Citation166 S.E. 4
Decision Date20 September 1932
Docket NumberNo. 7380.,7380.
CourtSupreme Court of West Virginia
PartiesPRIPICH. v. STATE COMPENSATION COMMISSIONER et al.

166 S.E. 4

PRIPICH.
v.
STATE COMPENSATION COMMISSIONER et al.

No. 7380.

Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

Sept. 20, 1932.


[166 S.E. 4]
Syllabus by the Court.

1. Where, in the course of and arising out of his employment, an employee in good health and of strong physique suffers physical injury, which is followed by serious disabilities, competent physicians differing as to whether the disabilities are attributable to the injury, but only probable or conjectural reasons or causes are assigned by physicians in an effort to explain the disabilities on grounds other than the injury, the presumptions should be resolved in favor of the employee rather than against him.

2. "Where the facts concerning a claim for compensation, arising under the Workmen's Compensation Act, are not sufficiently developed by evidence to enable the commissioner or the court to arrive at the real merits of the claim, an order may be entered here re-committing the case to the commissioner for further development." Holland v. Compensation Commissioner (W. Va.) 165 S. E. 675.

Proceedings under the Workmen's Compensation Act by Andy Pripich. From a ruling of the State Compensation Commissioner refusing to award claimant additional compensation and closing the claim, the claimant appeals.

Reversed, and cause remanded, with directions.

Harrison Conaway, of Fairmont, and John E. Amos, of Charleston, for appellant.

H. B. Lee, Atty. Gen., and R. Dennis Steed, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondents.

MAXWELL, J.

An appeal has been awarded claimant from a finding of the State Compensation Com missioner of April 6, 1932, refusing to award additional compensation and closing the claim.

Claimant was injured December 8, 1927, while employed as a coal loader for the Consolidation Coal Company in one of its mines at Baxter. It was first reported that the muscles of his back were bruised and sprained and "contusions of right side over liver and back." He was paid compensation for 133/7 weeks at $14.03 per week as an open claim. On February 13, 1929, this award was increased to 80 weeks being on the basis of a twenty per centum disability. Payments terminated Juno 27, 1929.

His condition did not thereafter improve. He was examined by several doctors and treated for tonsilitis, rheumatism, lumbago, gastritis and eventually operated on for appendicitis. About ten months after the accident, some of the doctors who examined him with the aid of an X-ray stated that claimant had sustained an injury to the dorsal and...

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