291 N.W. 339 | Wis. | 1940
Action by Western Condensing Company and its insurer against the Industrial Commission and another to review an order of the Industrial Commission awarding compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Act. From a judgment of the circuit court confirming the award the plaintiffs appeal.
The facts are stated in the opinion. This is a workmen's compensation case. The only point at issue is the method of computing the *453 applicant's compensation for partial permanent disability. The injuries and the extent thereof are stipulated. The injuries were to the index, middle, ring, and little fingers of the right hand, all of which were injured. The injuries occurred in 1938, so that the 1937 statutes apply. The citations herein are all to those statutes.
Partial permanent disabilities are classified by the statutes as major and minor. Secs.
Whenever the statutes prescribe the basis of computation for an injury, the statutory basis must be applied. RhinelanderPaper Co. v. Industrial Comm.
Computation of the loss consequent on amputation of the middle finger is more difficult. The finger being amputated, it is a specified schedule injury and must be computed under sec.
The commission did not compute the award according to the statutory schedules, but followed a schedule of its own creation, and did as it did in Consumers Coal Fuel Oil Co.v. Industrial Comm., supra. We there held that the commission must follow the statutory method of computation. The like was held in Rhinelander Paper Co. v. Industrial Comm.,supra. Justification for using the method here taken is urged on the ground that it has been followed for twenty-two years. This contention was made and rejected in the ConsumersCoal Fuel Oil Co. Case, supra. The departure there involved not being justifiable, that here involved is not. As the commission departed from the statutes in making its computation, its computation was necessarily wrong.
Although the above is sufficient to rule the case we should perhaps refer to the reason of the commission for departure from the statutory schedule for minor permanent disabilities. It construed sub. (5) of sec.
We are not unmindful of the contention of respondent that sec.
By the Court. — The judgment of the circuit court is reversed, and the record is remanded with instructions to enter judgment fixing the amount of the award in accordance with this opinion.
"7. The loss of all fingers on one hand where the thumb and palm remain, one hundred forty weeks. . . ."
"Sec.
"3. The loss of an index finger at the proximal joint, thirty-five weeks; . . .
"7. The loss of a middle finger at the proximal joint, twenty-five weeks;
"8. The loss of a middle finger at the second joint, fourteen weeks; . . .
"11. The loss of a ring finger at the proximal joint, fifteen weeks; . . .
"15. The loss of a little finger at the proximal joint, sixteen weeks. . . ."
"Sec.
"(3) Whenever amputation of a member is made between any two joints mentioned in the schedules in sections
"(5) For all other injuries to the members of the body or its faculties which are specified in these schedules resulting in permanent disability, though the member be not actually severed or the faculty totally lost, compensation shall bear such relation to that named in these schedules as disabilities bear to those produced by the injuries named in these schedules. Indemnity in such cases shall be determined by allowing weekly indemnity during the healing period resulting from the injury and the percentage of permanent disability resulting thereafter as found by the commission. For such computation the permanent disability period for injuries named in the schedule in section
"Sec.