Industrial Indemnity Co. v. Industrial Accident Commission

NOURSE, J. pro tem.

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By its petition herein Industrial Indemnity Company seeks to annul an award made by the respondent commission after reconsideration by which petitioner is ordered to pay to applicant the amounts expended by him for self-procured medical treatment.

[658]

The facts here are not in dispute. They are: In October 1956 and February 1957 the applicant, Joseph H. Estill, sustained injuries to his back. Petitioner was the compensation insurance carrier of Estill’s employer. It voluntarily paid temporary disability indemnity after the October injury and furnished medical treatment including hospitalization through April 1957.

Estill filed application with the respondent commission for workmen’s compensation indemnities and medical and hospital benefits. After hearing had upon this application the commission found that the injuries sustained in October 1956 and February 1957 were sustained in the scope and course of Estill’s employment; that said injuries did not cause any permanent disability and that said employee was not in need of further “medical treatment to cure or relieve from the effects of said injuries. ’ ’

During the course of the proceedings there was a great divergence of medical opinion as to the extent of the applicant’s disability and its relationship to the injuries. None of the doctors whose reports were received by the commission diagnosed a disc injury and all of them stated that all of the tests made to detect such an injury had been negative. After the commission had denied applicant’s claim for further medical treatment to cure and relieve the effects of his injuries, applicant sought treatment and care from several physicians of his own choice. He finally consulted with Dr. Jacobs who diagnosed applicant’s condition as a herniated disc, hospitalized applicant and with assistance of Dr. Daitch operated upon him and found a large protruded disc. Thereafter he performed a second operation for a post-surgical infection and continued to treat applicant to a point where applicant had achieved a remarkable improvement.

The commission’s award denying applicant further medical treatment was entered on January 8, 1959.

After the entry of the aforesaid decision and award by the commission, applicant did not again contact petitioner nor did he advise it of the diagnosis made by Dr. Jacobs or of the proposed surgery or of the continued treatment by Dr. Jacobs after surgery and it was not until he filed his petition to reopen on August 17, 1959, that petitioner or the respondent commission were advised of said diagnosis, operation and treatment.