Opinion ID: 1670630
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The current standard

Text: The Genera] Assembly has provided that the Court of Appeals may reverse the Commission only on four bases. The one obviously pertaining to factual determinations is, That the order or award was not supported by substantial evidence of record. Ark. Code Ann. § 11-9-711(b)(1)(B), (4) (1987). While the statute has not always been worded just that way, see Act 319 of 1939, § 25(b), the standard today is no different from that of 50 years ago. See, e.g., Williams v. Smith, 205 Ark. 604, 170 S.W.2d 82 (1943). Prior to 1979, workers' compensation cases were appealed from the Commission to Circuit Courts and then to the Supreme Court. In applying the substantial evidence standard to a decision of the Commission, this Court wrote that, upon review, we give the law judge's findings no weight whatever. Clark v. Peabody Testing Service, 265 Ark. 489, 579 S.W.2d 360 (1979). The General Assembly, in Acts 252, 253, and 597 of 1979, changed the appellate chain in such cases, eliminating the Circuit Courts from the review process and providing for appeal directly from the Commission to the Court of Appeals, which properly followed the lead we had established in reviewing only the Commission decision and ignoring the findings of the ALJs. See, e.g., Tyson Foods, Inc. v. Disheroon, 26 Ark.App. 145, 761 S.W.2d 617 (1988); Oiler v. Champion Parts Rebuilders, 5 Ark.App. 307, 635 S.W.2d 276 (1982). While we have gone so far as to allow the Commission to rely on an ALJ's stated perceptions of the demeanor, conduct, appearance, or reaction at the hearing, Wade v. Mr. C. Cavanaugh's, 298 Ark. 363, 768 S.W.2d 521 (1989), it has not been held that a court may use an ALJ's remarks to reverse a credibility determination made by the Commission.