Ferguson

Petitioner seeks annulment of a decision and award of respondent Industrial Accident Commission denying his application for compensation payments from respondent Subsequent Injuries Fund (hereinafter sometimes termed the fund). We have concluded that “labor disablement” rather than “employer knowledge” is the essential factor by which to gauge the previously sustained disablement in determining whether that disability qualifies petitioner for resort to the fund, and that the matter should be remanded to the commission for redetermination in the light of the views hereinafter set forth.

On February 2, 1956, petitioner, then 43 years of age, sustained a fractured right hip arising out of and occurring in the course of his employment as a meat cutter. His claim against his employer and the latter’s insurance carrier, based on the industrial injury, has been settled by an approved compromise and release, and the present case concerns only petitioner’s asserted right to payments from respondent fund under the provisions of section 4751 of the Labor Code as amended effective September 7, 1955.

During convalescence from the hip fracture (i.e., from the industrial injury), it was…