Petry v. Board of Retirement

ROTH, P. J.

James E. Petry, a retired deputy sheriff of Los Angeles County, (appellant), appeals from a judgment

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denying his petition to compel respondent Board of Retirement to vacate and set aside its determination that his disability was not the result of injuries incurred in the course of his employment. Appellant complains there is (1) no substantial evidence to support the retirement board’s finding and (2) he insists that the retirement board was bound by the prior contrary finding of the Workmen’s Compensation Appeals Board (then known as the Industrial Accident Commission) . We find no merit in either contention.

In March 1961, appellant participated in a training exercise for jail escape procedures at Firestone sheriff station. During the course of the drill, an escape alarm sounded and appellant Avas required to jump up, grab a gun and run to the outside rear entrance of the station. He testified he twisted something while running. A few hours after the drill, appellant felt a, “strain-like” pain, like a'“charleyhorse,” in the front of his left thigh extending laterally toward the outer margin of his left knee. The pain became more severe the next day. On the third day, the pain was so severe that his doctor sent him to St. Helen’s Hospital in Bellflower. He remained, for five days. Just before Christmas 1961, almost nine months after the simulated jail break in which he was injured, appellant developed pain in his right leg and a severe pain in his back. He had a history of a prior back injury. When he returned to work in June 1961, he was assigned less strenuous desk duties and Avorked only sporadically thereafter.

In September 1965, the Industrial Accident Commission found that the injury appellant sustained to his left thigh and back during the jail break drill arose out of and in the course of his employment. Appellant Avas awarded, among other things, $8,925 as permanent disability indemnity, and medical treatment for the remainder of his life.

In November 1965, appellant applied to the retirement board for service-connected disability retirement. The evidence before the hearing referee showed that since appellant had been injured in March 1961, he had been under the care of an attending physician and had also been examined by ten other physicians, including orthopedists, neurologists, neurosurgeons and a neuro-psychiatrist. The referee found there was conflicting medical opinion not only as to diagnosis, but whether the initial incident (in the jail break drill) could have resulted in a permanent disability, and whether appellant’s symptoms (the back and right leg) which developed more than eight months after the initial incident were related thereto and whether appellant's symptoms at the time of the