Receiving no additional witness testimony and hearing no oral arguments, the Full Commission, with Commissioner Sellers dissenting, then reversed the deputy commissioner's opinion and award. Defendants now appeal to this Court. We have repeatedly stressed the need of the Full Commission to acknowledge the deputy commissioner's superior position to make findings regarding credibility when the Full Commission is reviewing these findings with only a cold record before it. 128 N.C. App. 127 N.C. App.
Credibility is the single most important issue involved.
This is what we read Sanders and its progeny to require. To hold otherwise would virtually eliminate the need for a deputy commissioner to make any credibility determinations at all. To find plaintiff credible despite never observing the testimony of any witness involved in this case, the majority selectively determined in Findings of Fact 15 and 16 which witnesses' testimony should be given weight, addressing only two witnesses in this regard. The Full Commission relied only on the printed words before it to reverse what the deputy commissioner had seen and heard with his own eyes and ears, and substituted its judgment of credibility for his. This is a manifest abuse of discretion, and cannot stand on appeal.