Special Indem. Fund of Okl. v. Bonner

• Decision Date: 29 April 1947
• Docket Number: 32407.
• Citation: 180 P.2d 191,198 Okla. 491,1947 OK 144
• Parties: SPECIAL INDEMNITY FUND OF OKLAHOMA v. BONNER et al.
• Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court

180 P.2d 191

198 Okla. 491, 1947 OK 144

SPECIAL INDEMNITY FUND OF OKLAHOMA v. BONNER et al.

No. 32407.

Supreme Court of Oklahoma

April 29, 1947

Original proceeding in the Supreme Court by the Special Indemnity Fund of the State of Oklahoma, administered by the State Insurance Fund, petitioner, opposed by M. H. Bonner, compensation claimant, the Falcon Seaboard Drilling Company, employer, the Anchor Casualty Insurance Company, and the State Industrial Commission, to review an award in favor of the claimant.

Award vacated.

Syllabus by the Court.

An award against the Special Indemnity Fund, under the provisions of 85 O.S.1943 Suppl. § 172, is authorized only when an accidental personal injury to a previously 'physically impaired person' as therein defined results in additional permanent disability so that the degree of disability caused by the combination of both disabilities is materially greater than that which would have resulted from the subsequent injury alone; Record examined and held that the finding of the Commission herein that respondent's disability to his back, in combination with his previous disability, was materially greater in degree than that resulting from the subsequent injury alone is not supported by any competent evidence.

Mont R. Powell, L. B. Moore, and Thomas D. Lyons, all of Oklahoma City, for petitioner.

Miller & Goad, of Oklahoma City, and Mac Q. Williamson, Atty. Gen for respondents.

PER CURIAM.

On the 24th day of January, 1945, M. H. Bonner, hereinafter called respondent, filed his first notice of injury and claim for compensation stating that while employed by the Falcon Seaboard Drilling Companyhe sustained an accidental injury arising out of and in the course of his employment on January 9, 1945, when he hurt his back lifting a joint of four inch pipe.

After hearings conducted by the State Industrial Commission an award was made for 20 per cent permanent partial disability by reason of a back injury and the adjustment for this award has been made and is not in dispute.At the same time and as a part and parcel of the same award the State Industrial Commission found that respondent by reason of being a previously impaired person sustained a combined disability of 80 per cent to the whole man and ordered the Special Indemnity Fund to pay 300 weeks of the combined disability.

The Special Indemnity Fund has brought this proceeding to review the award and in two propositions asserts (1) that the State Industrial Commission has no authority to order that the Special Indemnity Fund of the State of Oklahoma pay respondent, Bonner, for a pre-existing disability sustained in 1930 and for which he had been fully compensated; (2) the award against the Special Indemnity Fund of the State of Oklahoma is erroneous and contrary to law in that the only disability for which the respondent, Bonner, is entitled to recover is that occasioned by the last injury of January 9, 1945, sustained to his back as there was no aggravation of a pre-existing impaired physical condition, and that, therefore, the basis of the award in this case is the injury to the back standing alone resulting from the last injury of January 9, 1945.

The record discloses that respondent was injured on January 9 1945, while working as a motorman and driller's helper for the Falcon Seaboard Drilling Company when he was holding a four inch drill pipe and lifted his foot to kick the nipple on the pipe and felt a pain in the lower part of his back resulting in an injury to the sacroiliac region of the back.It also discloses that as a pre-existing impairment and prior injury respondent had sustained an industrial injury on May 4, 1930, while employed by Loffman Brothers which resulted in a 100 per cent loss of vision in the left eye and 20 per cent loss of vision in the right eye.Respondent has received full payment of $5,400 at the rate of $18...