Sykes Co. v. Indus. Comm'n

• Decision Date: 04 December 1924
• Docket Number: No. 15859.,15859.
• Citation: 314 Ill. 326,145 N.E. 401
• Parties: SYKES CO. v. INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

314 Ill. 326

145 N.E. 401

SYKES CO.

v.INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION et al.

No. 15859.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Oct. 28, 1924.

Rehearing Denied Dec. 4, 1924.

Error to Circuit Court, Cook County; Harry M. Fisher, Judge.

Proceeding under the Workmen's Compensation Act by Albert Vollendorf, employé, for compensation for injuries, opposed by the Sykes Company, employer.From a finding of the circuit court, increasing compensation allowed employé by arbitrator and affirmed by Industrial Commission, employer brings error.

Judgment reversed, and award affirmed.

Farmer and Stone, JJ., dissenting.

Gallagher, Kohlsaat, Rinaker & Wilkinson, of Chicago, for plaintiff in error.

Hart E. Baker, of Chicago, for defendant in error.

HEARD, J.

This is a writ of error to the circuit court of Cook county to review a judgment of that court in the matter of an award of the Industrial Commission of Illinois, brought to the circuit court by certiorari.

An application was made for compensation for injuries sustained by defendant in error, Vollendorf, while in the employ of plaintiff in error, arising out of and in the course of such employment.Proper notice was given and demand made.It is admitted that first aid, hospital and medical services were furnished, and that the applicant received from the plaintiff in error $14 per week for 7 weeks, the period of temporary total incapacity.The arbitrator found that the applicant's annual earnings preceding the injury were $1,716, or a weekly wage of $33; that that the applicant was entitled to the further sum of $14 per week for a period of 100 weeks, as provided in paragraph (e) of section 8 of the Workmen's Compensation Actas amended(Smith-Hurd'sRev. St. 1923, c. 48, § 145), for the reason that the injuries sustained caused the loss of the first, second, third, and fourth fingers of the left hand; that $98 had been paid on account of the injury, and that the applicant was entitled to $84, the amount of compensation that had accrued from September 9, 1922, to October 17, 1922, the remainder of the award to be paid in weekly payments, commencing one week from the last-mentioned date.The Industrial Commission affirmed the arbitrator's findings.On the case being taken to the circuit court, that court made a finding that the applicant had sustained the permanent and complete loss of the use of his left hand, and awarded him 50 per cent. of his average weekly wages during 150 weeks.

The question in dispute is the nature and extent of the disability.The arbitrator's statement in the record as to the condition he found upon examination of the applicant's hand is that the first, second, third, and fourth fingers were amputated, the first, second, and third being amputated midway between the hand and the proximal phalanx, and the small finger at the proximal joint; that the thumb has no restriction of motion; that there are no marks, lacerations, scars, or any other evidence of injury in the palm of the hand, nor to the back thereof.The circuit court based its decision upon the same condition, but held that there was a complete loss of the use of the left hand, instead of applying the rate applicable to the separate fingers as mentioned in section 8.

The only provisions of the statute as to the loss of fingers, directly applicable here, are found in clause 7 of paragraph (e) of section 8, which provides that in no case shall the amount received for the loss of more than one finger exceed the...