Skinner v. Workmen's Compensation Appeals Bd.

• Decision Date: 20 February 1969
• Citation: 75 Cal.Rptr. 314,269 Cal.App.2d 905
• Parties: Ray SKINNER, Petitioner, v. WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION APPEALS BOARD, City of Redondo Beach et al., Respondents. Civ. 33246.
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

Page 314

75 Cal.Rptr. 314

269 Cal.App.2d 905

Ray SKINNER, Petitioner, v. WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION APPEALS BOARD, City of Redondo Beach et al., Respondents.

Civ. 33246.

Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 4, California.

Feb. 20, 1969.

Steven Roseman, Los Angeles, for petitioner.

Everett A. Corten, San Francisco, Sheldon M. Ziff, Los Angeles, T. Groezinger, Loton Wells and G. K. Bogue, San Francisco, for respondents.

WAPNER, Associate Justice pro tem. ^*

An applicant seeks review and annulment of an award made by the Workmen's Compensation Appeals Board after reconsideration.

A referee issued an award based on findings that applicant, born March 7, 1925, sustained a cumulative industrial injury to his nervous system while employed from August 6, 1963, through July 28, 1967, as an electrican leadman for the City of Redondo Beach; that the injury caused temporary disability from July 29 through October 10, 1967, and permanent disability of 60 percent (rated on the factor 'moderate neurosis') and that medical treatment as prescribed by Dr. Brody in a report dated November 15, 1967, was required to cure or relieve from the effects of the injury. On granting defendants' petition for reconsideration the appeals board found that 75 percent of the applicant's permanent disability was attributable to 'non-industrially related illness' and reduced the award of permanent disability to 15 percent, after apportionment.

Applicant contends that there is no legal basis for apportionment and the evidence compels a finding that further medical treatment is required.

The decision of the appeals board states:

'We have carefully reviewed the record in this matter. We are persuaded by the report of Dr. Laurence S. Brody of November 15, 1967, in which Dr. Brody states that a realistic figure as to the causation of applicant's disability would be 25% To industrially related illness and 75% To non-industrially related illness, that there should be an apportionment of 25% Of applicant's permanent disability to his industrially caused injury and the remainder should be apportioned to his pre-existing condition.'

The record reflects applicant had served 21 years in the United States Navy, the last 10 as a chief petty officer with as many as 50 men under his command. Upon retirement from the Navy he went to work for the City of Redondo Beach on August 6, 1963, as an electrician. He worked under a very demanding supervisor. He became a leadman and approximately two months later, after a week of unusual stress at work and in the course of an incident with his supervisor, on July 28, 1967, he became emotionally disturbed at his place of employment. He was disabled from July 29, 1967, through October 10, 1967, and required psychiatric care for mental illness. At the hearing of his claim the defendants admitted the industrial injury. Applicant testified that he had never had any emotional disturbances and was never treated by a psychiatrist prior to the injury. There was no medical history or evidence of any kind that applicant had ever previously manifested any type of abnormal mental condition or illness.

The medical evidence is comprised of the reports of two doctors. Both doctors agree that applicant's ability to tolerate stress is now severely impaired and he is subject to acute psychotic reaction in any stressful situation.

Dr. Brody had a consultation with applicant on November 10, 1967, and reviewed the reports of an insurance investigator, the city police department, and medical records, including a report dated October 13, 1967, of Dr. Wallace. In his report of November 15, 1967, Dr. Brody described applicant as extremely agitated, shaky, tremulous, argumentative, belligerent, suspicious, potentially dangerous and volatile, and diagnosed his condition as a paranoid state possibly representing either a chronic paranoid schizophrenic reaction in a state of marginal compensation or some sort of borderline psychotic state with paranoid tendencies and moderate acute depressive reaction. The report further states in pertinent parts:

'* * * I feel Mr. Skinner's psychiatric problems are Probably longstanding. He strikes me as a very brittle, fragile man psychologically who may function at a marginally psychotic level. This condition is a tentative diagnosis and I feel that possibly this condition was aggravated by promotion approximately sixty days prior to the incident. In addition, there is no question that there was some personality problem conflict between Mr. Skinner and Mr. Renke. I would estimate that probably Mr. Skinner's condition (acute psychotic reaction of July 28, 1967) was caused possibly by his underlying condition compounded with the acute stress of that week.

'* * * Mr. Skinner has filed an application alleging that his problem was totally caused by employment within the City of Redondo Beach. I do not believe that this is entirely acceptable because of the grossness and massive proportions of his disability.

'* * *

'I think that Mr. Skinner had been latently psychotic and probably this would have been entirely undetected if the stress of the responsibility of lead man had not been imposed on his (sic) plus the added stress of being 'forced' to take the weekend call. I think that probably a realistic figure would be 25% Industrially related illness and 75% Non-industrially related illness. * * *

'I would strongly recommend perusal of Mr. Skinner's medical records in military service to see if there was any evidence of psychiatric disability. It should be mentioned that this could have been masked because of the structured nature of military duties. I furthermore think that psychological testing would be helpful, because I would predict, that a picture of a paranoid psychotic state would be raised as a possibility.'

Dr. Wallace, the treating psychiatrist, expressed the opinion that work stress caused applicant's total disability. In his report of October 13, 1967, he stated:

'The factors of causation in psychiatric disability are rarely as clear-cut as in some other branches of medicine. However, in my judgment,...