Title: Sanchez v. Bernalillo County

State: new-mexico

Issuer: New Mexico Supreme Court

Document:

257 P.2d 909 (1953) SANCHEZ et al. v. BERNALILLO COUNTY et al. No. 5529. Supreme Court of New Mexico. May 27, 1953. W.T. O'Sullivan, Albuquerque, for appellants. Simms, Modrall, Seymour & Simms, James E. Sperling, Albuquerque, for appellees. BRAND, District Judge. Benjamin Sanchez filed a claim for workman's compensation against the defendants-appellees, on January 20, 1951, and died two days later, leaving a widow and an infant daughter. The widow remarried before the trial of this matter and, since under the Compensation Act a widow's right to benefits ceases upon her remarriage, we are concerned only with the rights of the infant daughter. The claim alleged: A suggestion of claimant's death and motion for survival of the claim in favor of the widow and child was filed, and the defendants-appellees answered and plead, inter alia: The testimony disclosed that in February, 1946, while working as a jailer for the Sheriff of Bernalillo County, Sanchez received several head wounds at the hands of prisoners who staged a jail break. His wounds were dressed and his head bandaged and the bandages renewed for about eight days. He lost no time from work and continued at this employment with the same wages until January, 1949, when he was discharged by the incoming sheriff. He then resumed his previous occupation of cutting lawns and worked at this, with some loss of time due to illness, until the fall of 1950, when he became quite ill. He was sent to a hospital for examination and observation, but it was then too late for him to be benefited by treatment, and his death followed shortly thereafter, and was attributed to atrophy of the brain and high blood pressure. The attending physician stated that, in his opinion, the blows he received on his head nearly five years earlier were a contributing factor to his death. About two months after the injuries received in the jail break, Sanchez started to lose weight and make complaints, chiefly of headaches. After leaving the sheriff's employ, he was unable to work steadily and complained that he was getting weaker and weaker every day; that he had dizzy spells; that his headaches were constant and severe. He also was afflicted with spells of mental confusion, gradually increasing in intensity, and he at all times attributed his troubles to the wounds which he had received while working as a jailer. The court found that throughout the testimony it appeared that the deceased, Benjamin Sanchez, made complaints about his head, while still working in the jail, and attributed his disability to the damage done to his head. He made no complaint, however, to his employer and no compensation was ever paid, nor did the employer file a report of the injury with the Labor Commissioner. At the close of the plaintiffs' case, the court directed a verdict for the defendants-appellees, holding that the claim was barred under the Statute of Limitation contained in the Compensation Act, and this appeal challenges the correctness of that action. Although from the claim it is apparent that plaintiffs intended to rely upon the proposition (in order to avoid the bar of limitations) that the seriousness of the injuries was not apparent and remained latent and undiscovered, this contention was abandoned and is not urged in this appeal, no point being raised as to this in the brief. Appellants set forth Assignments of Error reading: and three points relied upon for reversal, as follows: Point One asserts that defendants' failure to file the notice provided for by the Act with the State Labor Commissioner, prevented the period of limitation, within which a claim must be filed, from commencing to run. The pertinent sections in New Mexico Statutes Annotated, 1941 Comp., are: The limitations provisions of the Act are contained in the following sections: Section 57-917, mentioned in the above Section, makes provision for the payment of benefits to dependents in the event injury results in the death of a workman. Appellant, in support of this contention quotes extensively from Anderson v. Contract Trucking Company, 1944, 48 N.M. 158, 146 P.2d 873, where the court held that the limitation in the statute begins to operate, not from the date of the accident but from *912 the time of the employer's failure to pay compensation for disability when the disability can be ascertained and the duty to pay arises, unless the accident and injury must necessarily be treated as concurring incidents with no latent and undiscernible injury present. This case differs from the one before us in that in the Anderson case the workman was led to believe that his injury was trivial and he attributed his growing eye weakness to natural causes and advancing age. Suit was filed within the statutory period after the discovery by him of the seriousness of his injury and the court held it to have been filed in time. In the instant case, it was evident that the workman appreciated the seriousness of his injuries as as early as a few months after the occurrence of the accident but he took none of the steps required of him by the statute to acquaint his employer with the fact that he had sustained a compensable injury, and the only notice given to the employer or its insurance carrier that he claimed a compensable injury was the filing of the suit for compensation. Ogletree v. Jones, 44 N.M. 567, 106 P.2d 302, is authority for the proposition that notice, where required, is a condition precedent to recovery, and is a mandatory requirement upon which the right of action rests, and that this knowledge (of the existence of a compensable injury) which the statute requires, means more than just putting upon inquiry and involves more than knowledge of the mere happening of an accident. It seems, also, that this assignment of error fails because of the very language of the statute, 57-928, reading: Surely, from this language, a workman failing to file his claim in court within the statutory period after learning of the extent and seriousness of his disability, cannot avoid the bar of limitations by asserting that the employer failed to file with the Labor Commissioner a report concerning a compensable injury where, as here, the employer had no reason to believe that a compensable injury had occurred. Appellant also seeks under this point to assert that defendants pleaded as a bar that more than one year had elapsed since the date of injury and accident; whereas, the defense should have been that more than one year had elapsed since the date of failure or refusal to pay compensation; that this was an affirmative defense and that the mere pleading of it did not serve to prove it, and that before it could avail them they must have succeeded in establishing such defense as a part of their own case. This argument is not consequent to the point and, furthermore, as this Court stated in Maestas v. American Metal Co., 37 N.M. 203, 20 P.2d 924, 926: We therefore regard this point as unavailing and without merit. In Point Two we are asked to grant relief to the minor daughter of the deceased workman, even though it be assumed that his cause of action for compensation had been barred by limitations at the time it was filed. It will be remembered that the workman, Sanchez, sustained compensable injuries in 1946 from which he (it may be conceded) died in 1951, and that although he during these years continually complained about his declining health and increasing disability, with all of which he ever blamed the damage to his head sustained while working in the jail, he did nothing to claim or assert his right to compensation until two days before his death. Indeed, he behaved in the matter as if he were unaware that there was a Workmen's *913 Compensation Act in force, under the provisions of which he might have been entitled to relief. Consequently, as we have found, whatever rights he may have had because of his injuries and disability had long been extinguished by his inexcusable failure to file his claim within one year (indeed within four years) after the defendants had failed to pay compensation. Can it be that under such circumstances his dependents are nevertheless entitled to the benefits provided in the Act? Appellants, in support of their position, call our attention to the language in Sec. 57-918(a) (2), New Mexico Statutes Annotated, 1941 Comp., reading: This section, however, should be read in connection with the preceding Section, 57-917, being as follows: Appellants would persuade us that the wording of the italicized portions of 57-918 shown above, implies that the rights of minor dependents are to be determined upon a broader basis than those of adults, and that our consideration should take into account principles of equity, infancy and public welfare, in dealing with rights asserted by a minor dependent; that the court in such cases "is not to be restricted to the bare skeleton of the Act itself" but should proceed to weigh the equities, the element of protection of infant dependents and the promotion of the public welfare, and apply the paternal rules of chancery and the common weal. No New Mexico decisions are cited in support of this contention but we are asked to consider two California cases on the point, Glavich v. Industrial Accident Commission, 44 Cal. App. 2d 577, 112 P.2d 774, and Bianco v. Industrial Accident Commission, 24 Cal. 2d 584, 150 P.2d 806. The Glavich case [44 Cal. App. 2d 517, 112 P.2d 779] held that under the California Act dependent minors did not lose their right to recover death benefit and funeral expenses, under the Workmen's Compensation Act, incident to their father's demise, merely because the father failed to ask for or secure compensation for his disability during his lifetime by filing a claim therefor within six months from the time he had actual knowledge of the disease with which he was afflicted, since the Statute of Limitations tolled as to minor dependents until a guardian is appointed to represent them, the statute in question reading as follows: There is no such provision in our Act which saves the rights of dependents under disability from the running of limitations, although, as appears in 57-918, supra, when dependents are shown to be entitled to benefits, the court has authority to appoint a person to receive the same for such dependents in such portions and amounts as it may determine to be for the best interests of them and of the public. The time within which such benefits must be claimed, however, is nowhere enlarged in favor of claimants under disability. The Bianco case cites another portion of the California Act from which it will be seen that its limitation provisions are different from those in our Act in many particulars. Suffice it to say that there is not sufficient similarity in the two Acts to justify any attempt to harmonize the California decisions with those of our court. Indeed, in the Bianco case [24 Cal. 2d 584, 150 P.2d 807] the court in construing a portion of their Act reading: held that the provision was permissive, and indicated legislative intent that applicant is to have the longer period rather than being restricted to the shorter one. This is at entire variance with our statute as to limitations and our courts' treatment of these questions. Our Court has moreover passed upon this question in Martin v. White Pine Lumber Company, 34 N.M. 483, 284 P. 115, 116. Claim was filed by a widow for benefits under the Act because of the death of her husband following an operation for hernia, and compensation was denied because of failure to meet the special requirements of proof in hernia cases. Answering the contention that the widow was nevertheless entitled to benefits, the Court stated: Finally, in the reply brief, appellants cite Elsea v. Broome Furniture Co., 47 N.M. 356, 143 P.2d 572; Ritter v. Albuquerque Gas & Electric Co., 47 N.M. 329, 142 P.2d 919, 153 A.L.R. 273; Anderson v. Contract Trucking Co., 48 N.M. 158, 146 P.2d 873; and Gonzales v. Sharp & Fellows Contracting Co., 51 N.M. 121, 179 P.2d 762, to have us consider how far our Court has progressed from the views expressed in the earlier compensation cases, toward a more liberal attitude, designed to result in *915 benefits to the workmen rather than in detriment to beneficiaries. It is argued that this "new liberality" seen in recent decisions should impel us here to read into the statute an exception in favor of the minor dependent, so as to extend to her benefits which have heretofore been denied by a strict construction of the Act, or it is intimated, we will be chargeable with reactionary tendencies and uncompromising conservatism evidencing no appreciation of the modern trend of thought, and be in the position of nullifying the recent advances in this field of jurisprudence. Our cases which announce that the strict language of the statute is to be observed and that equitable consideration cannot control, should be either differentiated or repudiated. As has been said many times, it is not the province of the court, but of the legislature, to make changes in the provisions of statute law. Where the law-making body has specified clearly who shall be entitled to compensation benefits and under what circumstances, the court should not alter the conditions required to obtain such benefits. In Point Three, it is stated only "that the judgment below should be reversed" no new or other reason being advanced therefor. It consequently does not require consideration. For the first time, in the reply brief, we are asked to consider Sec. 57-919 of the Act, which gives the workman a cause of action against his employer, if the employer fail to furnish him adequate surgical and medical attention and such failure results in injuries to him, due to the neglect, or lack of skill, on the part of the person employed to care for him. This assumes that the injuries here became more severe and in the end fatal, because the employer had the workman treated by an incompetent physician, whose failure to render adequate aid resulted in the disability or in its increase. This proposition was not raised below or pointed out in the brief in chief, and we therefore will not consider it here. We conclude that the judgment is correct and should be affirmed. It is so ordered. McGHEE, COMPTON, COORS and LUJAN, JJ., concur. SADLER, C.J., not participating.