276 N.W. 741 | Minn. | 1937
It appears that respondent on March 8, 1934, received an accidental injury arising out of and in the course of his employment. The employer, the St. Paul Corrugating Company, and its insurer are relators. Respondent's injury was recognized by the employer as compensable under the workmen's compensation act, and for 19 weeks compensation was paid and medical treatment was furnished. At the end of that period the employer and relator declined to pay any further compensation, claiming disability from the accidental injury was cured. Thereupon respondent filed with the commission his petition for compensation. A hearing was had before a referee, who filed his findings February 1, 1935. The findings were in respondent's favor except this:
"That at the cessation of the payments of compensation on August 1, 1934, the petitioner had fully recovered from any and all effects of the accidental injury sustained by him in said employment, but was subsequent to that date disabled by a condition due to natural causes and disease not associated with his employment."
There was no appeal from the referee's decision. It appears from the record that respondent claimed the injury was to his back in the right lumbar region, and that he was totally disabled at the time of the hearing. He tried a number of doctors without receiving relief. They did not agree as to what caused the disability. One physician quite confidently attributed respondent's condition to *414 a spastic colon. The newly discovered evidence, and it may properly be so termed, is that in June, 1936, at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, an operation was performed on respondent's back at the location of his original injury, and in December following, when this application was filed to vacate the former decision, it appears that the operation had entirely removed the disability. In the opinion of the surgeons who advised and performed the operation, the accidental injury of March 8, 1934, produced the condition in the back remedied by the operation.
Relators concede that the commission had jurisdiction to entertain respondent's petition and also that its action thereon came within its sound judicial discretion. Mark v. Keller,
The writ is discharged and the order affirmed. Respondent may tax $50 attorney's fees as costs.