COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA 

Present: Chief Judge Fitzpatrick, Judge Bumgardner and 

 Senior Judge Hodges 

MAWIA H. MOHAMED 

 MEMORANDUM OPINION*

v. Record No. 1105-01-4 PER CURIAM 

 SEPTEMBER 4, 2001 

MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL, INC. AND 

 INSURANCE COMPANY OF THE STATE 

 OF PENNSYLVANIA 

 FROM THE VIRGINIA WORKERS' COMPENSATION COMMISSION 

 (David Rosenblum; Rosenblum & Rosenblum, 

L.L.C., on brief), for appellant. 

 (John C. Duncan, III; Duncan and Hopkins, 

P.C., on brief), for appellees. 

 Mawia H. Mohamed (claimant) contends that the Workers' 

Compensation Commission erred in finding that he failed to prove 

that his disability from December 7, 1999 through March 20, 

2000, excluding the period of February 7, 2000 to February 20, 

2000, was causally related to his July 26, 1998 compensable 

injury by accident. Upon reviewing the record and the briefs of 

the parties, we conclude that this appeal is without merit. 

Accordingly, we summarily affirm the commission's decision. See

Rule 5A:27. 

 

* Pursuant to Code § 17.1-413, this opinion is not 

designated for publication. 
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 On appeal, we view the evidence in the light most favorable 

to the prevailing party below. See R.G. Moore Bldg. Corp. v. 

Mullins, 10 Va. App. 211, 212, 390 S.E.2d 788, 788 (1990). 

Unless we can say as a matter of law that claimant's evidence 

sustained his burden of proof, the commission's findings are 

binding and conclusive upon us. See Tomko v. Michael's 

Plastering Co., 210 Va. 697, 699, 173 S.E.2d 833, 835 (1970). 

 In denying claimant's change-in-condition application, the 

commission found as follows: 

The claimant sustained a compensable 

accident in 1998 from which he completely 

recovered. For over one year he did his 

regular work which involved heavy lifting, 

did not need any medical treatment and he 

testified he was asymptomatic. 

 On February 4, 1999, he felt back pain 

after he lifted ten or eleven heavy pieces 

of luggage. Dr. [Lewis B.] Eberly examined 

him and found a radiculopathy on the 

claimant's left side. In 1998, the 

radiculopathy was in the claimant's right 

side. 

 Dr. Eberly has not said the claimant's 

current problems were caused by the 1998 

accident. He wrote the claimant had a 

"recurrent" radiculopathy but never 

identified if the recurrence was caused by 

the 1998 accident or the 1999 heavy lifting. 

There is no claim for the 1999 accident. 

 Without medical testimony of a causal 

relationship between the original injury and 

the back problems precipitated by the 

December 4, 1999, lifting incident, the 

claimant has failed to sustain his burden of 

proving causation to a reasonable medical 

probability. 
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 "Medical evidence is not necessarily conclusive, but is 

subject to the commission's consideration and weighing." 

Hungerford Mechanical Corp. v. Hobson, 11 Va. App. 675, 677, 401 

S.E.2d 213, 215 (1991). As fact finder, the commission was 

entitled to weigh the medical evidence. It did so and 

reasonably inferred that Dr. Eberly's medical records did not 

contain a persuasive opinion regarding causation. 

 In light of claimant's recovery from the initial injury in 

1998, the one-year gap in medical treatment between that injury 

and the 1999 lifting incident, and the lack of any persuasive 

opinion from Dr. Eberly regarding causation, we cannot find as a 

matter of law that claimant's evidence sustained his burden of 

proving a causal connection between his current disability and 

his compensable 1998 injury by accident. 

 For these reasons, we affirm the commission's decision. 

Affirmed.