Staley-Patrick Drilling Co. v. State Indus. Comm'n
| Citation | 88 Okla. 260,212 P. 1006,1923 OK 116 |
| Decision Date | 20 February 1923 |
| Docket Number | Case Number: 11822 |
| Parties | STALEY-PATRICK DRILLING CO. et al. v. STATE INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION et al. |
| Court | Oklahoma Supreme Court |
¶0 1. Master and Servant--Workmen's Compensation Law--"Permanent Partial Disability"--Injuries to Eye.
The last paragraph of subdivision 3, section 7290. Compiled Statutes 1921, providing for compensation for permanent partial disability, permits the Industrial Commission to make an award for the partial loss of vision of one eye where the proof shows that by reason of the partial loss of sight the claimant was unable to earn wages, or full wages, at the work at which he was employed at the time of the accident.
2. Same--Finality of Industrial Commission's Decision on Facts.
The decision of the Industrial Commission as to all matters of fact is final, if there is any evidence whatever tending to support it.
3. Same--Partial Loss of Sight--Amount of Award.
Where the Industrial Commission finds that the partial loss of sight amounts to a permanent partial disability under the provisions of the last paragraph of subdivision 3, section 7290. Compiled Statutes 1921, an award may be made therefor for fifty per centum of the difference between his average weekly wages at the time of the injury and his wage-earning capacity thereafter for a period not to exceed 300 weeks.
Error from the Industrial Commission.
Action by the Staley-Patrick Drilling Company and the United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company to review award of workman's compensation to John C. Welch. Affirmed.
Ross & Thurman, for petitioners.
George F. Short, Atty. Gen., and E. L. Fulton, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondents.
¶1 Petitioners ask a review of the award made by the Industrial Commission to the respondent, John C. Welch, for the partial loss of the use of an eye.
¶2 The first contention of the petitioners is that the Workmen's Compensation Law does not entitle a person to recover any compensation for the partial loss of vision, and they rely on the decision of this court in Rosso v. Milby & Dow Coal Company, 1 Ind. Com. Rep. (Okla.) 208. That case is not decisive of the question involved here, as the holding there was that the claimant, having lost from one-half to three-fourths of his vision, was not entitled to compensation for the loss of an eye; but the court did not hold that the partial loss of vision was not a permanent partial disability so as to entitle the claimant to compensation under the proper subdivision of the statute. Under section 7290, Comp. Stat. 1921, a schedule of compensation is provided whereby the amount of compensation for permanent partial disability because of the loss of an eye is fixed, but under the last paragraph of subdivision 3 of section 7290, which deals with permanent partial disability, the statute provides as follows:
"In all other cases in this class of disability the compensation shall be fifty per centum of the difference between his average weekly wages and his wage earning capacity thereafter in the same employment or otherwise payable during the continuance of such partial disability; not to exceed three hundred weeks. * * *"
¶3 While the loss of an eye is by the terms of the statute made such a permanent partial disability as to entitle claimant to recover without other proof of disability, a partial loss of sight in an eye must be proved to be such a permanent partial disability as to bring it within the provisions of the last paragraph above quoted. In a case of that kind it would be necessary to make proof showing that the partial loss of vision amounted to a disability, and if it appeared from the proof offered that by reason of the injury sustained resulting in partial loss of vision the claimant was unable to earn wages or full wages, as the case might be, at the work at...
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