Union Lumber Co. v. Industrial Accident Commission

THOMPSON (R. L.), J.

This is a petition for a writ of

certiorari

to review an award of damages which was rendered on account of injuries sustained by Sakari Palomaa in the course of his employment with the petitioner.

Sakari Palomaa, known as A. Palomaa, was employed by the petitioner on August 1, 1928, in its lumber camp . at Fort Bragg, as a laborer. On that date he received an injury consisting of a posterior dislocation of his left knee, as a result of being struck by a rolling log. The injury was sustained in the course of his employment. The petitioner carried its own accident insurance. The employer voluntarily paid the injured workman compensation to January 1, 1929, and also furnished him with an iron knee-brace. It appears that Palomaa was so disabled from the injury that he was unable to work until November 8, 1928. He then attempted to resume his employment, but the injury prevented him from performing efficient service and he left the lumber camp. January 1, 1929, he again attempted to resume his employment, working on part time until about May 1, 1929. He then left and returned to his native country of Finland. He was never thereafter employed with the petitioner.

On December 3, 1930, J. Plorton Beeman, of San Francisco, in behalf of Palomaa, filed with the Industrial Aeci

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dent Commission a claim for compensation for the injuries received. The Union Lumber Company answered this petition, admitting the employment, the injury to the workman, and the voluntary payment of compensation as above related. The answer, however, denied that Palomaa was permanently or seriously injured. It denied that any permanent disability which he then suffered was the result of the dislocated knee which occurred in the. course of his employment with the lumber company. It also asserted the claim was barred by the statute of limitations, as provided by section 11 of the Workmen’s Compensation Act.

The claim for compensation was first heard December 18, 1930. It was then continued to March 5th to permit the petitioner to furnish evidence of the identity of the claimant. At that time, over the objection of the Union Lumber Company, the certificate of T. E. Pajari, a physician of Raahe, Finland, where Sakari Palomaa resides, was admitted in evidence. This certificate was duly verified by Jarl Lindfors, the American vice-consul of Finland. It certified to the identity of Palomaa, together with the nature, extent and permanency of his injury. The further hearing of the case was then continued to October 21, 1931. At that time witnesses were examined and documentary evidence adduced. The” claimant was not present at any of these hearings. He still remained in Finland. In addition to the defense on the part of the Union Lumber Company that the claim was barred by the statute of limitations, the point which was then most strenuously urged is that the serious, permanent disability of the employee, as it appears from the certificate of the Finland physician, is not proved to be the result of the injury which he received at Fort Bragg, in the course of his employment, on August 1, 1928. This petitioner then requested a continuance to enable it to rebut the assumption. that the claimant was suffering from the result of his original injury, and to show that his present permanent disability of the knee-joint is the result of some subsequent injury. At the final hearing of this case at Ukiah on October 21, 1931, the referee made the following order: “The case will be referred to Mr. Britton for the purpose of preparing interrogatories, and when the same are prepared and forwarded, the parties will be allowed ten days thereafter to file with the commissioner cross-interrogatories. If