Court Opinion

ID: 9576118
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:21:04.070935+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:59:02.954600
License: Public Domain

Judge Wells
dissenting:
I must respectfully dissent from the majority opinion because I believe there was sufficient competent evidence to support the findings of fact made by the Commission. I will briefly discuss the essential findings of fact and the evidence which I believe supports those findings.
The Commission found: “2. ... In 1967 plaintiff began working for defendant-employer as a weaver. Except for six months absence in 1971, plaintiff worked continuously until May 5, 1977. The air was very dusty from the cotton that was processed ....”
*9To support this finding, we note the following portions of the evidence. Plaintiff testified in pertinent part as follows:
I have been weaving for Sherman Textiles. They run cotton, rayon, polyester, acetate. The mill was dusty. They did not have a dust cleaning system. There was a good bit of dust, mostly small and fine dust, with hairlike particles in it ... .
.. . The weavers had to clean and recap, and Sherman, when I first went to work there, they had us clean the harness and recap every Friday night. At the time I was cleaning up, you took a piece of old cloth and wiped the cotton off. It was from V2 to 2 inches thick on the loom and you wiped it off and fanned it out and went to the next one. You could see the dust in the air.... If someone behind you were cleaning the loom and you fanned your cloth and they fanned theirs, there was a lot of cotton dust flying around. You could see across the room, but it was dusty.
In addition to plaintiff’s testimony, there was evidence for defendant Sherman Textiles which tends to explain and clarify plaintiffs testimony in support of the foregoing finding of fact. William Michael Jackson, Sherman’s plant manager, testified in pertinent part as follows:
I don’t think the weave room where Mrs. Hansel worked is as dusty as it has been described. We have 6 or 7 big exhaust fans, 5 feet by 5 feet. They exhaust the air and the humidity adds mist; it has water in it and sprays in the room over all the machines to help keep down the dust....
The filler material is rayon, 100% rayon. The other material is 60% cotton. If we have 60% cotton, I suppose there is some cotton dust in Sherman Textiles, and the process itself gives off dust ....
In the type operation in the weave room at Sherman Textiles, there is always some lint, but not any compared to other textile operations ....
The Commission further found: “4. Plaintiff has both asthma and byssinosis which are causing her respiratory impairment .... 5. Plaintiff has byssinosis as a result of her *10exposure to cotton dust in her employment with defendant-employer and this is partly responsible for her disability.”
In support of the foregoing findings of fact, plaintiff testified generally as to her breathing problems and that she left her employment at Sherman Textiles because of her breathing problems. She did not have the problem before she went to work at Sherman Textiles.
In further support of the foregoing finding, Dr. Harris, plaintiffs medical witness offered, in pertinent part, testimony as follows:
She has an illness. In general terms, I thought it fitted the pattern of chronic obstructive lung disease or airway disease .... She has three distinct syndromes that probably contributes to that impairment. These are asthma, byssi-nosis and chronic bronchitis ....
.. . She should not be in an environment where there is dust. If her job requires exposure to dust, she shouldn’t do it ... .
. . . There is a possibility that she has byssinosis and she certainly could have ....
... People who have byssinosis for many years, have a lung disease that is indistinguishable from chronic bronchitis.
Additionally, we find the following sequence of questions and answers in the testimony of Dr. Harris:
A. If I can answer more than a yes or no. As best I can understand the question. There is a possibility that she has byssinosis and she certainly could have. I’d like to clarify a little in this particular situation.
Q. Could I interrupt you just a minute. Can you answer as to could or might?
A. The answer is yes, could or might.
*11Q. Pd like for you to assume the same facts, Doctor. Do you have an opinion satisfactory to yourself to a reasonable degree of medical certainty that the condition suffered by Pauline Hansel could or might by byssinosis?
A. I can answer that. Yes.
Q. Yes, you have an opinion?
A. Yes.
A. My answer is yes, it could or might be byssinosis.
In addition to Dr. Harris’ testimony, his written medical report was introduced into evidence and is a part of the record. That report, in the section entitled Comment, contains the following pertinent statements:
On the basis of the information available to me, this patient may well have three identifiable problems causing lung disease. She has a history compatible with and suggesting asthma. She is believed to have chronic bronchitis and to have byssinosis. The later [sic] diagnosis is made on the basis of chronic obstructive lung disease in a patient with a typical work history of byssinosis and presumably has had exposure to cotton textile dust over a long enough time to permit development of this syndrome .... It is not possible to quantitate the relative contribution of the various etiological factors in her present respiratory impairment. It is likely that all are involved to some extent. It is this examiners [sic] belief that the patient probably has asthma and that she does have chronic bronchitis as well as byssi-nosis.
Dr. Harris’ medical report also contained the following entry:
Diagnostic Conclusion:
1) Chronic obstruction [sic] air ways disease.
Asthma, probable.
Byssinosis syndrome.
Chronic bronchitis.
*12The portions of Dr. Harris’ testimony and medical report cited or quoted in this dissent are those which appear to be most favorable to plaintiff. It is clear, however, that Dr. Harris gave testimony, as pointed out by the majority, that he could not pinpoint the precise or exact cause of plaintiff’s illness; or to characterize his testimony further, it was to the effect that while plaintiffs exposure to cotton dust could have contributed to her illness, he could not eliminate other possible contributing causes. Thus, we come to the basic question of whether an award may be affirmed where the medical testimony supports the probability of compensable disease but does not rule out other possible causes not related to any exposure associated with the employment. Booker v. Medical Center, 297 N.C. 458, 256 S.E. 2d 189 (1979) seems to answer that question in the affirmative. In Booker, the hypothetical questions as to causation put to the expert witness included a “could or might have” type of hypothesis and the responses of the medical witnesses were to that effect: possible, or probable, but not conclusive. Chief Justice Sharp, writing for a unanimous Court, stated: “In our opinion the hearing commissioner committed no error in allowing the expert witnesses to answer the causation questions with the degree of certainty the witness felt appropriate [citations omitted].” Id. at 480, 256 S.E. 2d at 203.
Lockwood v. McCaskill, 262 N.C. 663, 138 S.E. 2d 541 (1964) also supports our position. In Lockwood, Justice Moore discussed at length the quality of expert opinion testimony necessary to make out a prima facie case for resolution by the jury on the question of causation. We quote in pertinent part:
With respect to hypothetical questions propounded to expert witnesses, the rule in North Carolina is that “If the opinion asked for is one relating to cause and effect, the witness should be asked whether in his opinion a particular event or condition could or might have produced the result in question, not whether it did produce such result.” Stans-bury: North Carolina Evidence (2d Ed.), § 137, p. 332. (Emphasis ours.)
The “could” or “might” as used by Stansbury refers to probability and not mere possibility. It is contemplated that the answer of the expert will be based on scientific knowledge and professional experience. Moore v. Accident *13Assurance Corporation, 173 N.C. 532, 92 S.E. 362; Raulf v. Light Co., 176 N.C. 691, 97 S.E. 236. The expert witness draws no inferences from the testimony; he merely expresses his professional opinion upon an assumed finding of facts by the jury. Godfrey v. Power Co., 190 N.C. 24, 128 S.E. 485. The expert may testify as to the causes capable of producing the result and whether or not the particular hypothesis was a capable cause. Patrick v. Treadwell, 222 N.C. 1, 21 S.E. 2d 818. A medical expert may base his opinion in part upon statements made to him by the patient in the course of professional examination and treatment and in part on the hypothetical facts. Penland v. Coal Co., 246 N.C. 26, 97 S.E. 2d 432. The opinion is based on the reasonable probabilities known to the expert from scientific learning and experience. A result in a particular case may stem from a number of causes. The expert may express the opinion that a particular cause “could” or “might” have produced the result — indicating that the result is capable of proceeding from the particular cause as a scientific fact, i.e., reasonable probability in the particular scientific field. If it is not reasonably probable, as a scientific fact, that a particular effect is capable of production by a given cause, and the witness so indicates, the evidence is not sufficient to establish prima facie the causal relation, and if the testimony is offered by the party having the burden of showing the causal relation, the testimony, upon objection, should not be admitted and, if admitted, should be stricken. The trial judge is not, of course, required to make subtle and refined distinctions and he has discretion in passing on the admissibility of expert testimony, and if in the exercise of his discretion it reasonably appears to him that the expert witness, in giving testimony supporting a particular causal relation, is addressing himself to reasonable probabilities according to scientific knowledge and experience, and the testimony per se does not show that the causal relation is merely speculative and mere possibility, the admission of the testimony will not be held erroneous.
Id. at 668-69, 138 S.E. 2d at 545-46. See also, Lee v. Regan, 47 N.C. App. 544, 267 S.E. 2d 909 (1980). Thus, it appears that while Dr. Harris’ testimony and medical report contains contradiction and uncertainties and points out the possibility of other con*14tributing causes, when the evidence shows that it is probable that plaintiff has byssinosis, viewed in the light of the clear evidence of her exposure to cotton dust in her employment, the Commission was clearly justified in making its disputed findings of fact. The resolution of contradictions in the evidence is the function of the Commission, not ours. Moore v. Stevens & Co., 47 N.C. App. 744, 269 S.E. 2d 159 (1980).
In my opinion, the order of the Commission must be affirmed.