Court Opinion

ID: 9455686
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 19:29:29.5447+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:41.417942
License: Public Domain

WILBUR K. MILLER, Senior Circuit Judge
(dissenting):
On September 6, 1951, Willie B. Jones fell when a wheel barrow he was pushing overturned. He suffered an injury to his right wrist and hand. For temporary total disability and permanent partial disability, the employer and insurance carrier paid compensation in the total sum of $11,000, the limit of the Act. The last payment was made September 17, 1957.
On September 5, 1958, Jones filed a claim against his employer for additional benefits. He alleged that due to his physical impairment caused by the injury and other factors, including his limited skills and lack of education, he had been unable to obtain employment and so had had no earnings since September 17, 1957. He alleged that, therefore, as a result of the injury of September 6, 1951, he had suffered permanent total disability.
The Deputy Commissioner found there was no medical or other evidence that Jones had any disabling condition causally related to the injury of September 6, 1951, except that for which he had been fully compensated. He therefore rejected appellant’s claim for additional compensation.
Jones sought review in the District Court and obtained summary judgment directing the Deputy Commissioner to award him compensation benefits for permanent total disability. Consequently the latter ordered the employer and insurance carrier to pay $19,355 for the period from September 18, 1957, to April 23, 1968, and thereafter to pay at the rate of $35.00 per week. They were also ordered to pay the reasonable cost of medical treatment and care required in the future. On appeal, my colleagues affirm. They do so on the theory that disability is an economic, not a medical, concept, and that the evidence of economic disability is “overwhelming.” That may be, but there must also be some proof of causation; it is lacking here. I think the record as a whole supports the Deputy Commissioner’s findings and his denial of the claim for additional compensation. That being true, the courts have no right to substitute their judgment for his.
Jones is barely above a moron in intelligence. He had several diseases and on February 6, 1961, sustained a fracture of his right shoulder in a fall on ice. The evidence showed that he is addicted to alcohol, has a police record, and made very little effort to get work. At the time of the hearing in the District Court he was receiving public assistance and had been receiving it for some time. I think he should continue to be a public charge. The cost of maintaining this unfortunate should be spread out among all the people, i. e., it should be borne by the government. It is wrong, in the circumstances here, to .impose that cost upon only two members of the public — • the employer and the insurance carrier, who have already discharged their legal liability.
I would reverse.