Court Opinion

ID: 9545039
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:05:04.51234+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:13:55.865073
License: Public Domain

MR. JUSTICE ADAIR:
I dissent.
On January 17, 1959, the claimant, Gary Gail Obie, suffered serious painful and permanent injuries while in the employ of his father then doing business as the Obie Signs, Incorporated, in Great Falls, Montana. The claimant’s father was insured against industrial accidents by the Standard Accident Insurance Company.
The claimant, Gary Gail Obie, then age 20 years, then and there suffered:
(1) the fracture of the surgical neck of his right humerus being the bone that extends from his right shoulder to his elbow;
*8(2) the fracture of the shaft of his right humerus in the lower one-third thereof; and
(3) injury to his radial, median and ulnar nerves.
On May 19, 1961, being two years and four months after sustaining his above-described injuries, the claimant was given a hearing before the Industrial Accident Board.
On June 19, 1961, the Industrial Accident Board made its findings of fact to the effect that the claimant had sustained the above-described injuries and that the medical evidence showed that the “claimant is presently permanently disabled with estimates ranging from twenty-five percent of the arm at the shoulder to ninety percent of the body as a whole.”
Also on June 19, 1961, the Industrial Accident Board made certain conclusions of law and certain orders awarding “nominal disability indemnity of compensation” and providing for the filing with the Board of a petition for additional relief should the claimant, by reason of “the medical condition” of his injured right arm and his above-described injured nerves, find himself unable to work or by reason thereof to suffer a loss in wages.
On June 26, 1961, the claimant petitioned the Board for a rehearing.
On July 31, 1961, the Board denied the claimant’s petition for a rehearing.
On August 4, 1961, the claimant appealed to the District Court of the First Judicial District in and for the County of Lewis and Clark.
On March 15, 1962, a hearing was granted by the aforesaid district court following which hearing said court set aside the findings of fact theretofore made by the Industrial Accident Board and thereupon said court made its own finding to the effect the claimant has suffered a “total disability, permanent in character” and awarded the claimant compensation for a period not exceeding five hundred (500) weeks pursuant to section 92-702, R.C.M.1947.
*9The insurer Standard Accident Insurance Company, and the employer, Obie Signs Incorporated, appealed to this, the Supreme Court, from the above judgment of the district court made and given by the Honorable John B. McClernan, district judge presiding.
On May 15, 1963, this appeal was heard in this the Supreme Court.
Now on this 15th day of October 1963, being some four (4) years, eight (8) months and twenty-eight (28) days after Gary Gail Obie received his crippling injuries he is told by this court that the district court’s order is in conflict with section 92-709, R.C.M.1947; that the district court did not receive any additional evidence concerning the claimant’s physical condition nor did it rule that the board’s record indicated that the claimant’s physical condition was other than that which the board previously found; that at the hearing additional testimony was presented concerning claimant’s present employment situation; that no “final determination” had been made by the Board and, in consequence thereof, the district court was without jurisdiction to take additional testimony of loss of earning capacity and that the cause should be remanded to the Industrial Accident Board to enable such evidence to be there presented so as to enable such Board to make a “final determination.”
Thus does the claimant, Gary Gail Obie, now find himself back before the Industrial Accident Board precisely where he was on May 19, 1961, being the date of his first hearing before the Industrial Accident Board.
Gary Gail Obie is a seriously and permanently injured young man. He has demonstrated that he is not a quitter. At the time of receiving his injuries Gary’s father was his employer. The father has proven himself to be an understanding one. He has given his son encouragement and aid. He has not stricken his crippled boy from his payroll. He has not cut his son’s salary, and, in my book, he is not required to either *10fire his offspring or to produce a loss of earning power by cutting his son’s wages, to enable the son, Gary Gail Obie, to adjust his differences with his father’s insurer, Standard Accident Insurance Company. Read Slavens v. Standard Accident Insurance Company (9th Cir. 1928), 27 F.2d 859.
In my opinion the judgment made and given by District Judge John B. McClernan was and is correct, just and legally sound and such judgment should be affirmed.