Dembeck v. Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp.

Digges, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The appeal here is by the claimant from a judgment of the Baltimore City Court affirming an order of the State Industrial Accident Commission passed on November 5th, 1932, whereby the commission discontinued payment of compensation ordered paid for temporary total disability under its prior order of October 16th, 1930. The order in question was passed by the commission after a hearing upon the petition of the employer and insurer to reopen the case to determine the nature and extent of the claimant’s disability. There is no controversy found in the record as to these facts: That on September 25th, 1930, the appellant was in the employ of the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation; that while so employed he on that day suffered an accidental injury growing out of and in the course of his employment; that a report of the injury was made to the commission, and, in the usual course, without a hearing, it found that the claimant was temporarily totally disabled by such injury, and awarded compensation to the claimant at the rate of $15.77 per week during the continuance of his disability, subject to the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Law (Code, art, 101, as amended), said compensation to ²⁴ begin as of the 29th day of September, 1930; that under this order compensation was paid the claimant until October 26th, 1931, when it was discontinued by the employer and insurer.

Subsequent to the discontinuance, the claimant filed a petition with the commission protesting the discontinuance and asking a reopening of the case to determine the nature and extent of the claimant’s disability. A hearing was held upon that petition on January 29th, 1932, as well as on March 23rd of the same year. At the conclusion of these hearings the commission passed, on the 14th day of April, 1932, an order affirming the original order in the case, namely, the one of October 16th, 1930, wherein compensation had been awarded for temporary total disability. Shortly thereafter, upon the petition of the employer and insurer, the commission was again asked to reopen the case and determine the same question, that is, the nature and extent of the claimant’s disability.

A hearing on this petition of the employer was had on October 11th, 1932, and resulted in the order of the commission from which an appeal was taken, whereby the compensation allowed under the order of October 16th, 1930, was discontinued as of September 30th, 1932. There are several questions presented on the appeal, of importance in the administration of the Workmen’s Compensation Law, and this induces the comment that the case presents an illustration of the multitudinous questions raised by the administration of this legislation, the declared purpose of which was to avoid litigation, delay and expense, and provide for certain compensation to injured employees engaged in occupations covered by the statute, and to cure the evils declared to exist under the law as it stood prior to the enactment of article 101 of the Code, “Workmen’s Compensation.” Statutes of this character are of almost universal existence in the various states> and the original statutes have been from time to time the subject of amendment. A study of the application of these statutes and the method of administering them has convinced the lawmakers in certain of the states of the wisdom of declaring that the action of ²⁵ the commission in awarding or disallowing compensation should be final, while in other states an appeal is allowed, whereby the case is practically tried de novo by a court and jury in the nisi prius court to which the appeal is taken. Since the act of 1931 (chapter 406) of this state, we have neither of those systems, but a combination of both, whereby the appeal is still retained, but must be heard and determined upon the record made before the commission; and by previous decisions of this court subsequent to that enactment it is now the law that nothing may be added to or subtracted from the record as made by the commission.

Thomas v. Penna R. Co., 162 Md. 509 , 160 A. 793 ; Celanese Corp. v. Lease, 162 Md. 587 , 160 A. 801 ; Monumental Printing Co. v. Edell, 163 Md. 551 , 164 A. 171 . The situation created by the act of 1931 and the decisions of this court, supra, makes it difficult to define and delimit the power and authority of the trial court on appeal in this class of eases. On the one hand we have the express mandate of the statute constituting a commission with broad powers, whose function it is, at least in the first instance, to determine and pass upon the validity of claims made by injured workmen under the statute. Formal and technical proceedings before the commission are enjoined, and technical rules of evidence are not to be applied by the commission.

By section 9 of article 101 it is provided: “Subject to the provisions of this article, the State Industrial Accident Commission shall adopt reasonable and proper rules to govern its procedure, which procedure shall be as summary and simple as reasonably may be. It shall regulate and provide for the kind and character of notices, and the services, thereof, and in cases of injury by accident, to employees, the nature and extent of the proofs and evidence and the method of taking and furnishing the same for the establishment of the right to compensation. It shall determine the nature and forms of application of those claiming to be entitled to benefits or compensation, and shall regulate the method of making investigations, physical examinations and inspections and prescribe the time within which adjudications and awards ²⁶ shall be made, provided, always, that all such rules and regulations shall conform to the provisions of this article.” Section 10 provides: “The Commission shall not be bound by the usual common law or statutory rules of evidence or by any technical or formal 'rules of procedure, other than as herein provided, but may make the investigation in such maimer as in its judgment is best calculated to ascertain the substantial rights of the parties and to carry out justly the spirit of this article.” On the other hand, by section 56 of article 101 (as amended by Laws 1931, c. 406), as it now stands, it is provided: “Any employer, employee, beneficiary or person feeling aggrieved by any decision of the Commission affecting his interests under this Article, may have the same reviewed by a proceeding in the nature of an appeal and initiated in the circuit court of the county or in the common law courts of Baltimore City having jurisdiction over the place where the accident occurred or over the person appealing from such decision, and the court shall, from the record made before the Commission (or upon any stipulation of the facts which may be agreed to and signed by the parties and filed with such appeal)) determine whether the Commission has exceeded the powers granted it by the Article, and whether it has misconstrued the law and facts applicable in the case decided as disclosed by the record aforesaid or such stipulation. If the court shall determine that the Commission has .acted within its powers and has correctly construed the law and facts, the decision of the Commission shall be confirmed; otherwise it shall be reversed or modified.

Upon the hearing of such an appeal the court shall, upon motion of either party filed with the clerk of the court according to the practice in civil cases, submit to a jury any question of fact disclosed by such record or stipulation involved in such case.” It is thus seen that an appeal is provided from the finding of the commission, which is uncontrolled by technical- rules of pleading and evidence, to a common law court whose function it is to compel certain recognized formalities and apply the technical rules of pleading and evidence. The effort is to reconcile, as far as may be within the power of this court, the ²⁷ conflict produced by the difference in procedure before the commission with the thoroughly settled practice and rules governing the trial of cases in the courts of law. This difficulty is illustrated, in the case now before us, by an objection on behalf of the appellant to' the report, of Dr. Bay, embodying the result of his examination of the claimant, made subsequent to the final hearing before the commission but previous to its order from which the appeal was taken. This objection was overruled and exception noted.

Dr. Bay, the record discloses, is the medical adviser and examiner of the commission, and his employment would seem to be amply provided for by sections 9 and 10 of article 101, above set forth, wherein it is specifically stated that the commission “shall regulate the method of making investigations, physical examinations, and inspections,” and “may make the investigation in such manner as. in its judgment is best calculated to ascertain the substantial rights of the parties and to carry out justly the spirit of this article.” It appears, however, that while the claimant had actual knowledge of his examination by Dr. Bay, because he submitted himself to such an examination, the report of the result of such examination was not made during a public hearing of the case at which the claimant or his counsel were present, and, further, that no opportunity was afforded the claimant to interrogate Dr. Bay as to the report or cross-examine him in reference thereto. Under such circumstances, there would seem to be a clear denial to tbe claimant of a right, recognized and enforced in all courts -wherein truth and justice is the objective, for the parties to the cause to be confronted with the witnesses against them, and an opportunity to test the correctness or truthfulness of the evidence by cross-examination. And while this report is contained in the record as made by the commission and sent to the trial court, that court must have the inherent right, so- long as an appeal to it be permitted, to correct such a fundamental error as would have the effect of a denial of justice as administered and practiced in that court; as, for example, if the commission heard only the claimant’s side of the case and did not ²⁸ permit the party opposing the allowance of compensation to he heard and present evidence in support of his contention, it would he manifestly so inequitable and unlawful as to require correction by the court on appeal. A perhaps broad statement of the rule which must be now adopted is that the commission makes the record upon which the case must be tried on appeal, but that it must make a proper record; and the function of the trial court is to inspect the record made by the commission, and, upon discovery of a fundamental error, or error which would result in a substantial denial of justice to any of the parties concerned, by its.order to return the record to the commission, to the end that a proper record be