291 Mass. 212 | Mass. | 1935
This is an appeal by the employee from a decree entered in the Superior Court adjudging that he was not entitled to compensation under the workmen’s compensation act.
The single member of the Industrial Accident Board found that the employee suffered a personal injury arising out of and in the course of his employment on January 22, 1919, when the striking of a heavy object on the index, middle, and ring fingers of his left hand required their amputation in part. He was paid specific compensation of $10 per week for twenty-five weeks, and total disability compensation of $14 per week on an average weekly wage of $23.25 from February 1, 1919, to May 12, 1919, when he returned to work. He continued to work in various capacities for the Fisk Rubber Company, in whose employment he was injured, until he was laid off on October 2, 1929. Since that time he has worked only for the Johnson Company, from June 1, 1932, to July 1, 1933, at $16 per week for the larger part of the time, and then at $14 per week to the time he finished there. The single member further found that the employee is right handed, and has a fairly good grip with the thumb and little finger of the left hand; that the stumps of the amputated fingers are well healed with no neuroma. He found and ruled that the employee is partially incapacitated by reason of his injury; that he has an earning capacity of $14 per week, and is entitled to partial disability compensation of two thirds of the difference between his average weekly wage of $23.25 and $14, that is, $6.17 per week,
The reviewing board received evidence of the condition of the employee’s injured hand by observing it and the limitation of function demonstrated, and found, upon all the evidence, that he was entitled to the payment of total compensation at the rate of $14 per week based on average weekly wages of $23.25 from October 2, 1929, and continuing subject to the provisions of the act, excepting therefrom the period June 1, 1932, to July 1, 1933, when he received wages on a special job in which he was favored.
A decree was entered in the Superior Court that upon “the record of all the evidence” the employee had “not been totally incapacitated for work since October 2, 1929, as a result of the injury sustained on January 22, 1919, but that said employee has suffered partial disability only and has been partially incapacitated for work since October 2, 1929, as a result of said injuries”; that the employee is not entitled to compensation for his partial incapacity to work since October 2, 1929, for the reason that on October 2, 1929, more than five hundred weeks had elapsed from the date of the injury. The employee appealed from the final decree.
On October 2, 1929, more than five hundred weeks had elapsed from the date of injury; therefore the employee was not entitled to compensation for partial incapacity beginning on that date. Paterno’s Case, 266 Mass. 323. St. 1911, c. 751, Part II, § 10, as amended by St. 1914, c. 708, § 5. But the employee makes no claim for partial incapacity to work. The question for decision on this record is whether the evidence warrants a finding by the Industrial Accident Board of total incapacity for which the employee is entitled to compensation from October 2, 1929. See
Although the single member found that the employee had an earning capacity of $14 per week, the reviewing board found that the employee “. . . sustained obviously permanently disabling injuries to the index, middle, ring and little fingers of his left hand, the nature and extent of such injuries being such as to limit his opportunity to obtain employment, that special work must be provided him to enable him to earn and that as the result of such injuries he has been totally incapacitated for work since October 2, 1929.” The single member found the employee to be partially incapacitated for work. The reviewing board heard no further or other evidence, except that it “received evidence on the condition of the employee’s hand by observing the injured left hand and the limitation of function demonstrated.”
We are of opinion that the evidence did not warrant a finding of total incapacity to work after October 2, 1929. The evidence shows that for ten years, from the year 1919 until October 2, 1929, he was in the employ of the Fisk Rubber Company, and during that time received as wages the sum of $14,551.25. There was no evidence of any change in the employee’s physical condition after his employment by the Fisk Rubber Company for ten years and five months
As the evidence did not warrant a finding of total incapacity the final decree entered in the Superior Court must be affirmed.
So ordered.