Schroeder v. Western Union Telegraph Co.

• Decision Date: 06 June 1939
• Docket Number: No. 25073.,25073.
• Citation: 129 S.W.2d 917
• Parties: SCHROEDER v. WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH CO.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

129 S.W.2d 917

SCHROEDER v. WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH CO.

No. 25073.

St. Louis Court of Appeals. Missouri.

June 6, 1939.

Rehearing Denied June 20, 1939.

Appeal from St. Louis Circuit Court; Joseph J. Ward, Judge.

"Not to be reported in State Reports."

Proceeding under the Workmen's Compensation Act by John J. Schroeder, by Mrs. Evelyn Schroeder, his natural guardian, employee, opposed by the Western Union Telegraph Company, self-insured employer. From a judgment affirming a final award of the Workmen's Compensation Commission in favor of the employee, the employer appeals.

Affirmed.

Jones, Hocker, Gladney & Grand and Wm. G. O'Donnell, all of St. Louis, for appellant.

John F. Clancy and Albert I. Graff, both of St. Louis, for respondent.

McCULLEN, Judge.

This is an appeal by the Western Union Telegraph Company, an employer self-insurer, from a judgment of the Circuit Court, City of St. Louis, affirming a final award of the Workmen's Compensation Commission in favor of John J. Schroeder, a messenger boy employee of appellant, awarding said employee for permanent total disability the sum of $6.17 per week for 300 weeks, and $6 per week thereafter for life.

The cause was first heard before Hon. Edward C. Lynch, Referee, who entered an award in favor of the claimant. On review by the full Commission, the award was affirmed as to the amount of $6.17 per week awarded for 300 weeks, but changed from $2.50 per week, as allowed by the Referee, to $6 per week for life after said period of 300 weeks. On appeal to the Circuit Court, the findings of fact and award of the Commission were affirmed.

The claim for compensation alleged that claimant was employed by the Western Union Telegraph Company as a messenger boy; that, on January 5, 1937, while delivering messages in the course of his employment, he was struck by the automobile of an unknown party while riding his bicycle on Delmar Boulevard between Aubert Avenue and Kingshighway Boulevard, St. Louis, Missouri; that he sustained injuries to his head, arms, hands, legs, and body, and as a result thereof is now afflicted with insanity.

The employer's answer was a general denial except it was admitted therein that John J. Schroeder, claimant, was in the employ of the employer on January 5, 1937. The employer's answer stated that no report of the alleged accident had ever been made by the employee or anyone for him; and that the employer had no knowledge thereof.

Appellant contends that the Circuit Court erred in affirming the award of the Workmen's Compensation Commission because there is no competent evidence to support the findings of fact made by the Commission; and because there was insufficient competent evidence to warrant the award.

At the beginning of the hearing before the Referee, it was stipulated by the parties that the claimant, on January 5, 1937, was an employee of the Western Union Telegraph Company; that said company was operating under the provisions of the Workmen's Compensation Act, Mo.St.Ann. § 3299 et seq., p. 8229 et seq., as a self-insurer; and that no compensation had been paid to the claimant. It was also admitted at said hearing that the employee's average weekly wage was $10.

The evidence shows that John J. Schroeder, the claimant, was employed as a messenger boy by the Western Union Telegraph Company at its office at Kingshighway and Delmar Boulevards in the City of St. Louis in October, 1936, and continued in such employment until January 5, 1937, the date of the accident out of which this claim for compensation arises; that his hours of work were from 4 p. m. to 11:30 p. m. daily. The evidence also shows that on the night of January 5, 1937, at about 8:45 o'clock, claimant, who was then seventeen years of age, was riding his bicycle west on Delmar Boulevard between Aubert Avenue and Kingshighway Boulevard, returning to the office of his employer from delivering a message in the course of his employment, when he was struck from the rear by a 1936 Buick automobile driven by some unknown party. Schroeder was knocked backward from his bicycle, and in falling struck his head on the front bumper of the automobile.

Francis McQuoid, a boy friend of young Schroeder, testified that he worked at Walgreen's Drug Store on the northeast corner of Kingshighway and Delmar Boulevards, and was standing at or near the corner of Aubert Avenue and Delmar Boulevard, about 50 feet east of the place where young Schroeder was knocked off his bicycle by the automobile. He stated that he was returning to Walgreen's Drug Store when he saw the automobile strike Schroeder. The witness testified: "Well, I was standing there by the ten-cent store, and I seen Johnny coming down the street there, and a car in back of him run up and hit the back of his bicycle, and Johnny fell off and hit his head on the bumper, and then the man got out and asked him if he was hurt, and Johnny said `No.' He picked his bike up and walked up on the sidewalk, and I asked him if his head hurt, and he said `No.'"

The evidence further shows that young Schroeder made no complaints of his injury that night, but continued on with his duties until 11:30 p. m., when he went off duty; that he walked home with his young friend Francis McQuoid that night and showed no outward ill effects resulting from the accident.

Mrs. Evelyn Schroeder, the claimant's mother and natural guardian, testified that she was not up when her son arrived home that night; that, as he worked to 11:30 every night, she did not make it a practice to wait up for him; that on the following morning, January 6, 1937, her son acted and talked in such a manner that she knew "he was crazy"; that he was "out of his head when he started talking", and "said he was a big shot at the Western Union"; that her son remained in bed at home for two weeks, after which he was taken to the City Hospital where he remained for three weeks and was then removed to the City Sanitarium where, at the time of the hearing, he was still confined; that at the City Sanitarium "they have him in ice packs all the time."

The record of the City Hospital, introduced on behalf of claimant, shows that the final diagnosis of claimant's case in that institution was that he was suffering from a mental disease known as schizophrenia.

Dr. Walter L. Moore, Assistant Superintendent at the City Sanitarium, testified that claimant entered the sanitarium on February 8, 1937, suffering from a mental disease called manic depressive psychosis. In response to a hypothetical question embodying the facts showing the manner in which the claimant was knocked backward off his bicycle and fell, striking his head on the bumper of the automobile, the witness answered: "Considering all those points that have been brought out I believe it predisposes to the psychosis. I don't believe its a cause; I can't say that. I do believe a trauma which was recent, preceding this, of such recent origin, preceding the development of the psychosis could be a predisposing or precipitating cause of the insanity."

In explanation of his answer, the witness testified further: "By that I don't mean it is violence per se that causes it — the precipitating cause. It depends on the individual, how he is going to respond to that. An individual who is under fear and tension may precipitate into an active psychosis. Now, whether that is not the cause, we don't know the cause, but any emotional factor can precipitate the psychosis."

When asked to explain what was meant by manic depressive psychosis, Dr. Moore said: "It is a mental state. It comes on rather suddenly, in which the individual's behavior becomes one of excitement; his thoughts come very rapidly, so fast, in fact, the individual cannot express the thoughts that go through his mind; he just expresses fragmentary words or phrases. They have a marked motor excitement. They are restless and irritable and they are unclean about themselves, and get expansive ideas. During one phase, that is, the excited phase, in this psychosis, the manic phase, these spells may become so severe that the individual becomes depressed and completely withdrawn, and very stuporous and quiet. During the time they also have marked emotional depressions, feeling of sadness. These people may, in some cases, become psychic; in other words, the individual of one type or phase, either the excited or depressed, and then recovers, makes a remission, and then they go along more or less for a length of time and then may have another."

The doctor was asked, "Is that a condition of the nerves, or of the brain, or both?" and answered, "Well, it is considered as a mental disease; considered as a disease of the mind, as a symptom of disease of the brain, but there is no definite known cause, or no disease in the tissue, if it is the tissue that is involved." On cross-examination, Dr. Moore was asked: "And as a matter of fact this boy's condition is just as likely to have resulted from something other than that accident as to have resulted from that accident, isn't it?" To which the doctor answered: "I wouldn't say so in this boy's case."

Dr. A. H. Deppe, who was appointed by the Commission to examine the claimant, testified that the claimant was insane and that he was suffering from dementia praecox; that the direct underlying cause of that disease is not known; that it may develop without any outward cause, or it may be precipitated by trauma, but that, if precipitated by trauma, the patient would eventually become insane, whether the precipitating cause occurred or not. The doctor was asked the following hypothetical question: "Now, assuming doctor, this boy, John Schroeder, whom you made the examination of was apparently normal in all respects in that he carried on his usual occupation as a messenger boy, delivering messages, up to and including January 5th, 1937, and that on that night he gave a history, and testimony has been set forth in the previous hearing of this...