Bethlehem-Sparrows Point Shipyard, Inc. v. Glass

Grason, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This is a workmen’s compensation case. The claimant was awarded compensation by the State Industrial Accident Commission, to be paid by the employer and self-insurer, from which an appeal was taken to the Baltimore City Court. The case was tried before a jury, and from a judgment in favor of claimant for costs, the appeal comes here.

The claimant was employed by the employer in 1932 as a crane operator, and continued in that employment until 1942. Between 1942 and 1945 he was employed as a carpenter. He is at present employed by appellant as a crane operator. On October 20, 1942, he sustained an accidental injury, arising out of and in the course of his employment.

He did not file his claim for compensation for injury resulting from this accident, with the Commission, until January 17, 1946. At the trial of the case below one of the defenses of the appellant was that the injury complained of was not the result of the accident. We need not go into that question, as the main defense was that appellee filed his claim too late, while appellee contends that the claim was filed in ⁵⁰³ time, and if not so filed appellant is estopped from setting up limitation. Code, 1939, Art. 101, sec. 38, as amended by Laws 1945, c. 528, sec. 2.

There were four issues submitted to the jury: (1) “Did the Claimant sustain an accidental injury to his back on or about October 20, 1942, arising out of and in the course of employment with Bethlehem-Sparrows Point Shipyard, Inc.? (2) Is the disability from which the Claimant is alleged to be suffering from December 10, 1945, to February 24, 1946, the result of an alleged accidental injury sustained on or about Oct. 20th, 1942? (3) If the answer to issue No. 2 is ‘Yes,’ should the Claimant’s injury have become reasonably apparent to the Claimant one year prior to January 17, 1946? (4) Did the injury the Claimant sustained on October 20, 1942, first affect his wage earning capacity in the same employment one year prior to January 17, 1946?” The jury answered the first and second issues “Yes”; the third and fourth issues “No.” The claimant described the accident as follows: “I was holding on to this timber when the timber gave way or slipped forward toward me I went down on my hands and on my knees; I held the timber to keep it from mashing my feet.

When I wanted to get up I couldn’t hardly get up. . I stooped over and that is practically the way I stood for five or ten minutes before I eventually stood up, and I stood up against the cribbing for maybe 15 or 20 minutes more before I could move. The pain went across my legs and back and I couldn’t hardly move.” The timber that slipped was 32 feet long and 12 by 12 inches. Peter Monieski was asked: “Q. Who tried to raise one end up, you or Mr. Glass?

A. Both of us raised it, and I told him to hold it, and I would put a block under it, and after we got done he put his hand on his back and said his back hurt, and I said you go to the doctor, and after that I don’t know nothing.” It is not clear whether the claimant went to the company dispensary on the day of the accident. He did go ⁵⁰⁴ the next day, and they strapped his back. ' He thinks this was on the day following the accident. After they “strapped his back up” he said: “I told them I don’t think I could work, I just as soon would go home. No, he said, no, you go back and tell your foreman to give you something light to do, which I did.” He does not know the name of the man in the dispensary who told him this. “I never did do too much hard work after that, I couldn’t do it, so much lifting, I just had to do what I could do, I never did do any real heavy lifting after that.

I did some lifting, but not heavy lifting.” Shortly following the accident he had pains in his legs but “maybe a couple of weeks after * * * they eased up.” He stayed with the same gang and received the same pay after the accident. He said the pain across his back “never did leave altogether. It eased up at times but as soon as I would pick up something a little heavy again it would just come right back on me and I was back where I started from.” In the summer of 1943 he went to see Dr. Lenhard. The doctor x-rayed him and recommended a back brace.

Claimant said the doctor told him that he had a “bad sprained back and probably a ruptured disc, but he wasn’t sure.” He was told to wear the brace for at léast six months. The doctor told him: “You have had this for some time since you sprained your back.” He went to The Johns Hopkins Hospital and was given heat treatment and pills, and in June, 1943, his back hurt him quite a good deal. He was asked: “I notice that there are apparently on the hospital record here that you came in on June 12, 1943, June 28th, July 3rd, July 6th, July 8th and July 13th. So around that time your back was really giving you considerable pain, wasn’t it?

A. That’s right. Q. Did you know what was causing that pain at that time, what had caused that pain? A. I know from the accident what I figured it was from; it was more or less from the first time that I hurt my back that I had the trouble; I never had no trouble like that before.” ⁵⁰⁵ In 1945 he consulted Dr. Lippy, who sent him to see Dr. Eaton. Dr. Eaton saw the claimant on December 15, 1945. “He could barely walk because of acute severe pain in the lower back and left leg.” He gave Dr. Eaton a history of his case.

The doctor testified: “According to my notes, three years ago, from a heavy lifting he had severe strain, twisted his low back, and could not straighten up for two months. No sciatic pain. X-rayed by Dr. Lenhard and given a brace, which he has worn off and on ever since. Twelve weeks ago heavy lifting recurrence of acute episode.

At the present time a hard bed feels good. He has sciatic radiation with painful