Gray v. Department of Correction

Marbury, J.. delivered the opinion of the Court. This is an appeal from the judgment of the Baltimore City Court, sitting without a jury, affirming the decision of the Workmen’s Compensation Commission that the appellant did not sustain an accidental injury arising out of and in the course of his employment. ⁵¹⁰ The sole question presented is whether the Workmen’s Compensation Commission and the lower court, sitting without a jury, may discredit the testimony of the appellant, especially when such testimony was, in part, inconsistent with the version given previously by him and was disputed and controverted by two witnesses and a medical report, and when the appellant and the other two witnesses personally appeared before the Commission and the lower court, both of which saw and heard the witnesses and had the opportunity to observe their demeanor on the stand. On June 30, 1959, appellant, an inmate, was working in the laundry at the Maryland Penitentiary. He testified that while carrying an armful of shirts down some steps, he fell and struck his face on the corner of a step or against a table at the bottom of the steps.

There were no witnesses to a fall. Appellant was sent to the prison hospital by a guard, where he was examined, X-rayed, and sent back to his job. After approximately one-half hour, he was called back to the hospital, where he was confined for about two or three months. Examination of the appellant and the X-rays revealed that he had suffered a bilateral mandibular fracture (two fractures of the jaw bone, one on each side, opposite the other), plus injuries to his knees and forehead.

Appellant testified that he slipped either on soap powder or when his legs became entwined with a shirt. Preston Fitzberger, a custodial officer, testified for the appellees that appellant told him he had become faint due to the heat, walked to the doorway, had fainted and had fallen down the stairs. The medical report of the examining dentist stated that in his opinion, “since there were no lacerations of soft tissue in or about the mouth, and since the locations of the opposing fractures suggest a picture common to that produced by a fist blow, it seems likely that the injury was not sustained in a fall. However, I don’t think it is possible to say, without a doubt, that he was not injured by a fall.” Appellant denied that he had been in a fight with another inmate.

However, there was testimony by Russell Kohler, an ⁵¹¹ other custodial officer on duty in the hospital, who testified that when Gray came into the hospital he was admitted to a ward but that he requested to be put in a room. He asked Gray why and he said, “Don’t you know my case?” When Kohler answered in the negative Gray said, “Well, some people say that I am a girl,” and so that was enough for him, he put him in a room. These womanlike traits of character attributed to him by his own admission and never refuted, coupled with the dentist’s opinion as to the cause of his injuries, and his two inconsistent versions as to how he sustained his injuries, gave rise to an issue of fact which the Commission and the trial court had to resolve. When a claimant has been denied compensation by the Commission, and appeals, on the appeal the decision of the Commission is deemed to be prima facie correct and the burden of proof is