COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA 

Present: Judges Annunziata, Agee and Senior Judge Coleman 

CLARA M. BALLARD 

 MEMORANDUM OPINION*

v. Record No. 2517-00-3 PER CURIAM 

 MARCH 6, 2001 

HALLER CLOCK COMPANY OF AMERICA, INC. 

 AND PENNSYLVANIA MANUFACTURING ASSOCIATION 

 INSURANCE COMPANY 

 FROM THE VIRGINIA WORKERS' COMPENSATION COMMISSION 

 (Terry N. Grimes, on brief), for appellant. 

 (Susan Moloney Smith; Midkiff, Muncie & Ross, 

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

 Clara M. Ballard (claimant) contends that the Workers' 

Compensation Commission erred in finding that she failed to 

prove she sustained an injury by accident arising out of and in 

the course of her employment on March 15, 1999. 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. 

 In denying claimant's application, the commission relied 

upon the deputy commissioner's credibility determination, 

finding as follows: 

 

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

designated for publication. 
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 The Deputy Commissioner found that the 

claimant did not sustain her burden of 

proof. His conclusion is based on a 

comparison between the claimant's hearing 

testimony and Dr. [John F.] Carmack's 

medical records, which reflect that the 

claimant had pain after lifting a bunch of 

stuff and after performing repetitive motion 

all day long. [The deputy commissioner] 

ultimately determined that the claimant's 

account at the hearing was not credible. 

 . . . We find that the record supports 

the Deputy Commissioner's determination. 

[Sandra] Hackney[, claimant's supervisor,] 

credibly testified that the claimant did not 

tell her that she hurt herself until several 

weeks after March 15, 1999. The claimant 

admitted that she did not tell Hackney 

exactly how the accident occurred. 

 The claimant's testimony that she 

refused the offer of medical assistance on 

April 9, 1999, because her arm hurt too much 

is implausible. Although she said that her 

arm was "killing her," she waited over a 

month to get treatment. The most 

contemporaneous medical reports support a 

finding that the claimant's injury was 

caused by repetitive trauma, which is not 

compensable. 

 In light of claimant's failure to report a specific 

identifiable incident to her supervisor, the one-month gap 

between the alleged incident and when claimant first sought 

medical treatment, and the lack of any history of a specific 

identifiable work-related incident in the contemporaneous 

medical records, the commission, as fact finder was entitled to 

find claimant's hearing testimony not credible and to conclude 

that at most, she proved a non-compensable repetitive trauma 
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injury. It is well settled that credibility determinations are 

within the fact finder's exclusive purview. Goodyear Tire & 

Rubber Co. v. Pierce, 5 Va. App. 374, 381, 363 S.E.2d 433, 437 

(1987). 

 Based upon this record, we cannot find as a matter of law 

that claimant's evidence sustained her burden of proof. 

Accordingly, we affirm the commission's decision. 

Affirmed.