Opinion ID: 2614906
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: ii(a : the evidence supports the decision one injury occurred subsequent to the other

Text: The OWCC has no authority to enter an award against the Fund until it is shown by competent proof the employee is a physically impaired person. Special Indemnity Fund v. Hunt, 200 Okl. 1, 190 P.2d 795, 798 (1948). The evidence relating to this jurisdictional question will be weighed by us and an independent determination made as to whether adequate proof exists to show physically impaired status under the Act. Id. 190 P.2d at 798-799. We have also said, however, in the absence of a request for more specific findings as to the nature and extent of the impairment which makes a worker a physically impaired person, a general finding of such status is sufficient. Id. at 798. The trial tribunal generally found Choate was physically impaired by virtue of a 1983 binaural hearing loss of 15%. No request for more specific findings was made by Fund to the trial tribunal. We, thus, initially, determine Fund's claim the order of the trial tribunal was invalid because it did not specifically make findings concerning the exact dates of the two injuries does not render the order fatally defective. [12] However, in that our duty is to independently weigh the evidence concerning physically impaired status we must still determine whether the jurisdictional prerequisite is sufficiently shown by this record. As set out in PART I both doctors opined the respiratory injury occurred first and the hearing loss second. In our view, in light of the uncontroverted medical evidence one injury occurred subsequent to the other there is simply no factual basis to support Fund's argument the two injuries occurred simultaneously. Fund bases its argument on the fact the record indicates the last date of exposure to trauma in the workplace was August 23, 1983. The last date of exposure, as Fund seems to believe, is not synonymous with the date of injury for purposes of Fund liability. As we will explain in PART IV the last date of exposure, now a relevant date as to when the statute of limitation begins to run in cumulative trauma injury cases, is not and was not conclusive as to the date these two injuries may have occurred for purposes of determining Fund liability. Suffice it to say at the present time both doctors opined one injury occurred first and the other second. We have been presented nothing by Fund, other than its erroneous assumption the last date of exposure is the date of injury, to support its argument the injuries occurred simultaneously. Such erroneous assumption is obviously insufficient to rebut the unequivocal medical evidence that the respiratory injury occurred first and the hearing loss second. The requirement that one injury occur subsequent to the other has, thus, been met on this record and we have been provided no rationale to deviate from the undisputed medical evidence presented on this point. Accordingly, the evidence supports the view Choate was a physically impaired person under the Act by virtue of a respiratory injury at the time of his work induced hearing loss. [13]