Local Appeal Tribunal case file for Dennis Cadman, aged 56, Miner at [colliery not...

Date of birth:
Marital status: Not given
Address: 32 Park Hill, Awsworth
Type of benefit claimed: Sickness benefit
Type of injury: Hand injury/neurosis
Further information: Cadman's appeal was first heard by a Local Appeal Tribunal on 16 November 1955. On that occasion it was adjourned to allow Cadman to seek further medical opinion to support his case. Cadman went before the tribunal again on 25 January 1956, having obtained and submitted a letter from his doctor (dated 31 December 1955), who had been examining him since 1941, the year in which Cadman suffered his first accident, confirming that he had a damaged left hand 'which is virtually useless'. The Insurance Officer acknowledged this but also pointed out that the doctor did not 'specifically certify incapacity for work'. At the request of the NUM representative, the case was adjourned once again to allow Cadman to be examined by a psychiatric specialist, following a statement by his son that he had been diagnosed with 'a neurosis' by Nottingham General Hospital following the deaths of three close relatives. A Medical Board that examined Cadman on 6 December 1955 considered him 'capable of work within certain limits'. Cadman went before the tribunal for the final time on 9 March 1956. His case was disallowed, with the tribunal finding there was 'a conflict of medical opinion' and concluding that it was 'not satisfied that claimant is unfit for doing work of a simpler nature not requiring much physical exertion'. Cadman took his case to the Commissioner, who, on 23 July 1956, overturned the decision of the tribunal and allowed the appeal (C.S. 139/56). There is a full family and personal history in the file, detailing previous incidents down the pit, including one that resulted in him losing the fourth finger of his left hand in 1941, and another involving himself and his brother.