28 S.E.2d 900 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1944
1. Where an employee developed a hernia from an accident, and was operated on at the expense of his employer, and awarded compensation, and later applied for additional compensation on the ground of a change in condition, an award finding that he had fully recovered and denying future compensation, unappealed from, was conclusive on him, and the State Board of Workmen's Compensation was without authority, on another application based on a change in condition, to make an award based on a change in condition, when the undisputed evidence showed that at the time of the award denying additional compensation for change in condition the employee was suffering the recurrence of a second-degree hernia temporarily totally incapacitating him.
2. The fact that the employee's condition had changed from a second-degree hernia to a third-degree hernia since the previous denial of compensation would not authorize an award of additional compensation or another surgical operation for the reason that the second-degree hernia resulted in temporary total incapacity; a change in condition which does not increase or decrease incapacity is not a change in condition upon which an award may be based.
2. The fact that at the time of the last award the claimant had a third-degree hernia would not justify the award. The claimant was temporarily totally disabled on November 12, 1942, and was entitled to all the rights afforded him under the law. He was denied those rights and his remedy was by appeal. If he had obtained an award in his favor for his full rights he would not be entitled to an additional award by reason of a change in condition from a second- to a third-degree hernia, for the reason that such a change would not have increased the percentage of his disability. The effect of the award appealed from is to reverse the previous award, a thing which cannot be done under the guise of an application for additional compensation based on a change of condition. Moore v. Mutual Liability Ins. Co.; Ingram v.Liberty Mutual Ins. Co., supra; American Mutual Liability Ins.Co. v. Hampton,
The court erred in denying the appeal, and in sustaining the board's award.
Judgment reversed. Sutton, P. J., and Parker, J., concur. *602