No. 10251 | 5th Cir. | Nov 30, 1942
N. J. Mostert made a claim for compensation before the Texas Industrial Accident Board for an industrial injury. He was awarded payments aggregating $1,-350.00. The insurer, appellant here, brought suit in the district court to set the award aside, alleging as the basis of federal jurisdiction diverse citizenship and an amount involved in excess of $3,000. Mostert moved to dismiss because the amount in controversy is less than $3,000. No evidence was taken, but a certified copy of the papers before the Board appears in the record and was considered in rendering judgment. The suit was ’ dismissed for want of jurisdiction and this appeal questions that judgment.
It is conceded that under the Texas Compensation Law, Vernon’s Annotated Civil Statutes of Texas Art. 8306, a suit to set aside an award opens up for trial de novo the claim filed with the Board; and we assume, as the parties do, that the amount here in controversy is the largest amount that could be recovered under the claim. The claim names no sum, but states the nature and extent of the injury thus: “Hot metal stuck to edge of left ear drum causing terrible pain and deafness; ear has been ringing, since, frequent earache with pain running down along jaw bone, incised ear drum did not heal. So I cannot bear
Judgment affirmed.