State v. Industrial Accident Commission

Petitioner State of California, hereinafter for convenience called Subsequent Injuries Fund, seeks review of an award made against it by respondent Industrial Accident Commission in favor of respondent Springer, an industrially injured employee with a preexisting permanent disability.

Springer is a deaf mute; on May 13, 1952, he sustained an industrial injury to the fingers of his left hand. For that injury on March 3, 1953, respondent commission awarded him permanent disability benefits for a 6% per cent permanent disability. Thereafter Springér applied for additional compensation under Labor Code, section 4751, from Subsequent Injuries Fund, basing his claim upon his preexisting disability.

At the hearing on his application he testified substantially as follows: He was 37 years old and has been a deaf mute since birth. He attended a school for the deaf through the second year of high school. Since the completion of his education he has been fairly steadily employed, although his congenital defects did handicap him in securing employment, having worked as an auto painter and at several related occupations. At the time of his injury he had been employed by the Ford Motor Company…