Court Opinion

ID: 9642978
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 18:14:14.00642+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:55.694877
License: Public Domain

On Petition for Rehearing.
PER CURIAM.
By petition for rehearing, our attention is called to the recent decisions of the Texas Supreme Court in effect overruling pri- or intermediate appellate court decisions in that state, and holding “that the date of the injury, and not the subsequent date when incapacity develops, is the correct one from which to reckon the time within which the claim should be filed and notice given.” Williams v. Safety Casualty Co., Tex.Sup., 102 S.W.2d 178, 179, and cases there cited.
We of course defer to that construction of the Texas statute by the highest court of that state, and withdraw from the foregoing opinion all that is in conflict with it. While this will pro tanto alter the opinion filed December 28, 1937, it will not alter the result.
 This is not a case of traumatic injury, the existence of which is apparent, but an injury' resulting from the gradual onslaught of lead poisoning, the existence and cause of the injury being unknown until substantially the time when notice was given. Even if Burden’s lack of knowledge in the respects stated did not postpone the date from which the statutory notice limit begins to run, it does constitute good cause for the Accident Board to waive a strict compliance with the notice statute as expressly provided in article 8307, § 4a, Rev.Civ.Stat. of Texas. By his pleadings below, Burden asserted that the notice given by him was timely, but if not, then his ignorance of the existence and cause of his injury excused prompt notice, so the latter question was before the trial court for consideration.
 As notice of an injury presupposes knowledge of its existence, a waiver of strict compliance with the notice requirement, would be justified in the circumstances here presented. 71 C.J. 985. This is a case of ignorance of the existence of the injury, not merely a misjudging of the re-suits of a known injury, nor mere ignorance of the employee’s legal rights. As the facts which constitute good cause for failure to give notice already appear in the record, and as the issue is presented by the pleadings, it is unnecessary to refer the cause to the trial court to again inquire into such facts.
Petition for rehearing is denied.