Harold D. Jeffers v. Pappas Trucking

This is an appeal from an award and findings of the Nebraska Workmen's Compensation Court that the plaintiff was entitled
to compensation because a job-related injury had caused a 50 percent permanent partial disability to his right leg. The plaintiff
has appealed, contending that the injury was to his body as a whole rather than only to his leg, and that he is totally and
permanently disabled rather than partially disabled. On July 28, 1975, Harold D. Jeffers, the plaintiff and appellant herein, filed a petition for benefits in the Nebraska Workmen's
Compensation Court. As amended, the petition alleged that the plaintiff sustained personal injury on October 31, 1974, in
a motor vehicle accident arising out of and in the course of his employment by the defendant. The plaintiff prayed for the
relief to which he may be entitled under the provisions of the Nebraska Workmen's Compensation Law, sections 48-101 et seq.,
R. R. S. 1943. In their answer, defendants Pappas Trucking, Inc., and Great West Casualty Company admitted that the plaintiff
was employed by Pappas Trucking, Inc., on October 31, 1974, and that he was injured on that date. The answer alleged that
plaintiff's injury would not have been as great, nor would disability have resulted, had an older injury to the plaintiff
not existed. On September 30, 1975, the plaintiff and defendants stipulated that the plaintiff should be allowed to amend
his petition to join the State of Nebraska, Second Injury Fund, as a defendant for the reason that plaintiff had a preexisting
permanent partial disability as the result of a prior accident. The Second Injury Fund denied the allegations of the amended
petition.