St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co. v. Hughes
| Decision Date | 20 January 1972 |
| Docket Number | No. 2,No. 46782,46782,2 |
| Citation | 187 S.E.2d 551,125 Ga.App. 328 |
| Parties | ST. PAUL FIRE & MARINE INSURANCE COMPANY et al. v. Jack HUGHES |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
Savell, Williams, Cox & Angel, John M. Williams, Elmer L. Nash, Atlanta, for appellants.
Rich, Bass, Kidd & Broome, Charles T. Bass, C. Richard Avery, Decatur, for appellee.
Syllabus Opinion by the Court
The workmen's compensation claimant Hughes suffered a work connected back injury on April 30, 1968. An agreement for payment of compensation was entered into. He returned to work for the same employer and continued until the end of July; then, when work became slack, worked for a builder, learned the carpentry trade, and then worked for his brother in law who was a subcontractor for the builder. He was at all times suffering from certain physical restrictions, but drove nails, helped with insulation and trim work and other carpentry jobs. He worked steadily until January, 1970, when he again consulted a doctor. A myelogram taken in March revealed a herniated disc for which he was operated on May 18, 1970 and discharged a week later. He testified that he had had no new injury; that the work he had performed since leaving Chance, the original employer, was not such as independently to aggravate the condition, but that the pain had continued to worsen since the original injury and had finally become insupportable and necessitated his quitting. Compensation had of course been discontinued when he returned to work in July, 1968. There was medical opinion testimony that in all probability the disc extrusion was related to the original back injury. The award was, after the first remand by the superior court, examined by the full board which found particularly that there was no aggravation of the claimant's condition subsequent to the board-approved agreement of September, 1968, which would tend to affect the claimant's disability. Medical expenses for the operation, and compensation for a period of slightly over three months, was awarded and forms the subject of this appeal, which was affirmed by the Judge of the Superior Court of Cobb County.
The award is amply supported by the evidence and is without error. The position of the appellant is based on an erroneous interpretation of Pacific Employers Ins. Co. v. Ivey, 118 Ga.App. 299, 163 S.E.2d 435 and cases there cited. Ivey and similar cases, most of which had to do with the beginning period for running of a statute of limitation, consider the...
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Evergreen Packaging, Inc. v. Prather
...to a finding of a new accident based upon an aggravation of a pre-existing injury”). Compare St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co. v. Hughes, 125 Ga.App. 328, 330, 187 S.E.2d 551(1972)(holding that “even if the wear and tear of ordinary life or ordinary work to some extent aggravates a pre-existi......
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R.R. Donnelley v. Ogletree
...gradual worsening or deterioration would constitute a change in his condition and not a new accident. St. Paul Fire, etc. Ins. Co. v. Hughes, 125 Ga.App. 328, 187 S.E.2d 551 [ (1972) ]; Garner v. Atlantic Building Systems, Inc., 142 Ga.App. 517, 236 S.E.2d 183 [ (1977) ].(Punctuation omitte......
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Beers Const. Co. v. Stephens, HENSEL-PHELPS
...the work activities of an employee who leaves its employ to work elsewhere must be specifically recognized. In St. Paul Fire, etc., Co. v. Hughes, 125 Ga.App. 328, 187 S.E.2d 551, the claim of new accident was apparently made against the claimant's first employer, but we held that there was......
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Employers Mut. Liability Ins. Co. v. Powell, Nos. 49358
...employment with Hooks Milling Company and the rationale of Kresge, supra, applies. This court's opinion in St. Paul Fire and Marine Ins. Co. v. Hughes, 125 Ga.App. 328, 187 S.E.2d 551, is distinguishable. There, the claimant Hughes had received an earlier back injury for which compensation ......