Kriegbaum v. Buffalo Wire Works Company, Inc.

Appeal from an order of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the third judicial department, entered March 14, 1918, unanimously affirming an award of the state industrial commission made under the Workmen’s Compensation Law. Kriegbaum was in the employ of the Buffalo Wire Works, Company, Inc., and on July 20, 1914, sustained an injury which resulted in the loss of the sight of his right eye. On September 8, 1914, the commission awarded Kriegbaum 128 weeks’ compensation at six dollars and forty-two cents a week, being for partial permanent disability, namely, the loss of the right eye, and the total amount of such compensation was paid to the claimant. At the time this award was made, on September 4, 1914, the papers before the commission showed that Kriegbaum had prior to this accident to his right eye, namely, in the year 1901, practically lost the sight of his left eye. In 1917, on claimant’s application, the case was reopened and the commission, notwithstanding the objections duly made by the attorney for the carrier and employer after the first award had been paid in full, made an award for compensation at the same weekly rate, but for total disability to date from the ■ date of the last payment under the first award. The question was whether, under the circumstances, the state industrial commission had authority to reopen the case and make the additional award.