The plaintiff injured his hack when he fell in an industrial accident. He appealed to the circuit court from an award by the defendant or its predecessor, State Industrial Accident Commission, claiming additional benefits. The defendant Department appeals to this court from a judgment of the trial court entered upon the jury’s verdict awarding plaintiff benefits in excess of those awarded by the Commission.
The jury returned a verdict finding that plaintiff had suffered an unscheduled permanent partial disability of the back equivalent to a 45 per cent loss of use of one arm and permanent partial disability of the right leg to the extent of 25 per cent loss of use of such leg. The Compensation Department contends the trial court erred in not withdrawing the claim of disability to the leg.
The initial injury was to plaintiff’s back, not his leg. There was evidence that plaintiff’s leg is disabled from pain in the leg caused by his injured back. The Department’s physician testified that the leg pain “was referred pain from his back, not through nerve pain but radiation pain coming from his back down into his thigh.”
The defendant relied upon the proposition that pain alone is not compensable.
Lindeman v. State Indus. Acc. Comm.,
The Department also points ont that under the statutory scheme of compensation in which certain scheduled benefits are provided for the disability of different parts of the body, benefits cannot be awarded for disability of part A caused by an injury to part B. This is the reasoning of
Graham v. State Ind. Acc. Com.,
The court, however, on the same day decided
Kajundzich v. State Ind. Acc. Com.,
In the present case there is evidence that the injury to the back caused disabling pain in the leg and this will support a verdict awarding benefits for the partial loss of the use of such leg.
Affirmed.