Case Name: Bobby MORELOCK v. KEARNEY COMPANY
Court: Arkansas Court of Appeals
Jurisdiction: Arkansas
Decision Date: 1995-03-08
Citations: 48 Ark. App. 227
Docket Number: CA 94-373
Parties: Bobby MORELOCK v. KEARNEY COMPANY
Judges: Robbins and Mayfield, JJ., dissent.
Reporter: Arkansas Appellate Reports
Volume: 48
Pages: 227–235

Head Matter:
Bobby MORELOCK v. KEARNEY COMPANY
CA 94-373
894 S.W.2d 603
Court of Appeals of Arkansas En Banc
Opinion delivered March 8, 1995
Tolley & Brooks, P.A., by: Jay N. Tolley, for appellant.
Shaw, Ledbetter, Hornberger, Cogbill & Arnold, by: E. Diane Graham, for appellee.

Opinion:
John Mauzy Pittman, Judge.
Bobby Morelock appeals from an order of the Arkansas Workers' Compensation Commission finding that he failed to prove that he sustained compensable injuries to his feet on September 16, 1992, and to his back on December 11, 1992. Appellant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to uphold the decision. We affirm.
On appeal in workers' compensation cases, we view the evidence and all reasonable inferences deducible therefrom in the light most favorable to the Commission's findings and will affirm if those findings are supported by substantial evidence. Wright v. ABC Air, Inc., 44 Ark. App. 5, 864 S.W.2d 871 (1993). Substantial evidence is such relevant evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion. Id. Where the Commission's denial of relief is based on the claimant's failure to prove entitlement to benefits by a preponderance of the evidence, the substantial evidence standard of review requires affirmance if the Commission's opinion displays a substantial basis for the denial of relief. Id. It is the function of the Commission to determine the credibility of witnesses and the weight to be given to their testimony. Johnson v. Hux, 28 Ark. App. 187, 772 S.W.2d 362 (1989). The Commission is not required to believe the testimony of the claimant or any other witness, but may accept and translate into findings of fact only those portions of the testimony it deems worthy of belief. Id.
Appellant worked as a lathe operator for appellee for 15 years. Appellant testified that he left work on September 12, 1992, complaining of a headache. On September 16, 1992, Dr. Johnny Atkins saw appellant and diagnosed tendonitis in his feet and advised him not to go to work for one week. Appellee's personnel manager testified that when appellant subsequently brought a doctor's excuse, appellant said that he was unsure of the cause of his tendonitis. Appellant did not work from September 12 to September 22, 1992. Appellant returned to work on September 22 and was reprimanded for excessive absenteeism, occurring both before and after September 16. Appellant first claimed on September 22 that his foot injury was work-related. Appellant does not recall a specific incident but contends that he suffered a compensable injury to his feet on September 16, 1992, caused by repetitively "rocking" on his feet to operate the lathe.
Although appellant testified in his deposition that he first noticed pain in his feet on September 16, 1992, he recanted this testimony at trial and stated that his foot problems began in July prior to September 16, 1992. Dr. Joe Rouse's report of September 29, 1992, states that appellant said that he had been having problems with his feet for about two months. Appellant testified that about two or three months prior to September 1992 he told co-workers his feet hurt; appellant's supervisor said he first learned that appellant was asserting a work-related injury to his feet on September 22, 1992. Appellant stated that his foot problems started when he worked twelve-hour days for seven days a week during the 1992 summer months. However, appellee's records indicate that appellant worked an average of 40 hours a week or less and with the exception of one day, he never worked more than eight hours a day that summer.
Appellant's supervisor testified that a lathe operator may shift his weight from one foot to the other, but the job did not require "rocking" one's foot as appellant described. The supervisor stated that 30 to 40 percent of a lathe operator's time is spent setting up the machine which requires standing stationary without shifting or rocking the feet. He also said that appellant worked as a lathe operator from December 3 to December 11, 1992, without complaining about his feet. Dr. Joe Rouse opined that he could not say that appellant's condition was caused by work activities, but that his work did aggravate the condition. Appellant worked from September 22 to September 28 and then did not work until October 6, 1992. On October 6, he was assigned to light duty. Appellant said the job required him to reach forward while seated, which placed stress on his lower back. He frequently worked light duty until December 3, 1992, when he returned to work as a lathe operator. He worked until December 11, 1992, when he said that his back hurt. Appellant contends that he suffered a back injury on December 11, 1992, and has not worked since that time.
Appellant testified that he was physically active in non-work related activities, such as sports and hunting, prior to September 16, 1992. Appellant said that he was not physically active from December 1992 until April 1993, but the Commission found that he had engaged in activities such as basketball, volleyball, deer hunting, and four-wheeling prior and subsequent to September 16 and December 11, 1992, the dates of his alleged injuries. Moreover, appellant's medical records indicate that he suffers from degenerative disc disease, and the records document complaints of low back pain from 1981 to 1988.
The Commission found against appellant for several reasons: appellant failed to prove that he sustained a compensable injury to his feet or back; appellant's testimony lacked credibility and consistency; appellant was slow in reporting his injuries as work-related; appellant had excessive absences from work prior to and after the alleged injury in September; appellant engaged in physically demanding activities before and after both alleged injuries; Dr. Rouse testified that the foot injury was not job-related; three physicians who saw appellant related the foot injury to his job, but none of them "documented persuasive evidence of job-related injuries"; and appellant's back problems were longstanding. From our review of the record, we cannot conclude that fair-minded persons could not find as the Commission did here.
Affirmed.
Robbins and Mayfield, JJ., dissent.