Reeves Motor Co. v. Reeves

⁵⁷⁸ Collins, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This is an appeal from a judgment of the Circuit Court for Allegany County reversing an order passed by the State Industrial Accident Commission which disallowed a claim of the appellee. The claimant, appellee, Harold R. Reeves, filed a claim for compensation as a result of an injury on the tenth day of November, 1951. A hearing was held before the State Industrial Accident Commission and compensation , was disallowed by that Commission.

An appeal was noted to the Circuit Court for Allegany County, where the case was tried before the trial judge. and a jury. The jury found that the claimant had sustained an accidental injury arising out of and in the course of his employment on November 10, 1951; as a result of such injury he was temporarily totally disabled until June 12, 1952; he suffered permanent partial disability as a result of the accident on November 10, 1951; and his permanent partial disability was forty per centum. The court having instructed- the jury that the claimant had a pre-existing disability of twenty per centum prior to the accident of November 10, 1951, therefore the jury found that twenty per centum partial disability was caused by that accident of November 10th. The appellants, Reeves Motor Company and Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, filed a motion for a directed verdict on the ground that other than temporary total disability from November 10, 1951, to November 24, 1951, the claimant had offered no legally sufficient evidence that the accident of November 10, 1951, was the proximate cause of his temporary total disability or his permanent partial disability thereafter.

This motion was refused. The appellants filed a motion for a judgment n.o.v. on the same ground, which was also refused. From a refusal of those motions, appellants appeal to this Court. The appellants admit that the accident of November 10, 1951, happened' within the scope of appellee’s em ⁵⁷⁹ ployment.

The question hére presented is whether there is any legally sufficient evidence to justify submitting to the jury the question whether there was any causal connection between the accident of November 10, 1951, and the operation which resulted in temporary total disability after November 24, 1951, and the permanent partial disability. Of course, in deciding whether the demurrer prayer and the motion for a judgment n.o.v. should have been granted, we must resolve all conflicts in the evidence in favor of the appellee and assume the truth of all evidence and all inferences which may naturally and legitimately be deduced therefrom which tend to support his claim. Eisenhower v. Baltimore Transit Co., 190 Md. 528, 532 , 59 A. 2d 313 ; Kaplan v. Stein, 198 Md. 414, 416 , 84 A. 2d 81 . The burden is upon the claimant, appellee, to show the causal connection between the accident on November 10, 1951, and the operation on December 27, 1951, and the results thereof.

The facts of the case follow. Harold E. Reeves, claimant, appellee, thirty-four years of age, is employed as shop foreman in a garage operated by his father, Harry V. Reeves, Sr., owner of Reeves Motor Company near Westernport, Maryland. The appellee has never been employed by any person other than his father, except for his service in the United States Army, since he began working. While employed by his father in 1942 he dislocated his left shoulder while working beneath an automobile in the garage.

He was paid compensation for the week he lost from work as a result of that injury. Between the time of his first injury and June 11, 1944, when he entered the Army, the same shoulder was dislocated “approximately six times” and for each dislocation he was paid compensation by the insurance company. He served for about one year in the Army and during that time dislocated his shoulder “at least eight or nine times”. As a result he was given a medical discharge and ten per centum permanent disability allowance.

After his medical discharge he was operated on at the ⁵⁸⁰ Veterans’ Hospital at Fort Howard in Í945 in an attempt to correct that condition. His condition improved somewhat. For about two years he had no further disability. In 1947 his shoulder was again dislocated and he was called up for re-examination by the Veterans’ Bureau and his disability was increased to twenty per centum.

He testified that since 1947 his shoulder has been dislocated at least seven times. In his report to the adjuster for- the insurance company, signed by him, the statement was made that between 1947 and up until November 12, 1951, the shoulder “jumped out of place” on the average of every two weeks or a total of about forty-six times. On October 18, 1951, the claimant was involved in an automobile accident, not in the course of his employment, and among other injuries he suffered a dislocation of his left shoulder. Although Dr. Raymond W. Reeves, of Westernport, had previously attended him for dislocations of his shoulder,, he went to Dr. James H. Wolverton, of Piedmont, West Virginia, for the injuries sustained in that automobile accident.

This was the only time claimant was treated by Dr. Wolverton. Dr. Wolverton reduced the dislocation and heard of the recurrent dislocations. He suggested to the claimant that he have an operation to prevent this. He recommended an operation by Dr. E. D. Weinberg, of Baltimore, and made