Court Opinion

ID: 9669410
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 02:55:22.151514+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:56.452605
License: Public Domain

Hallows, J.
{dissenting). To me, the inferences drawn by the Industrial Commission in rejecting the findings of its examiner are unreasonable and without support in the evidence. Consequently, the Industrial Commission is without power to make such findings. Only one reasonable inference can be drawn from the evidentiary facts as a matter of law and that is the employee was guilty of misconduct as that term is used in the statute. The evidence is compelling that the employee’s conduct evinced a wilful and wanton disregard of the standards of behavior which the employer had a right to expect and which was in violation of the employee’s duty to his employer.
This is not a case of whether there is credible evidence, sufficient evidence, some evidence, or just evidence, to sustain. the findings. On review of an award of the Industrial Commission under sec. 108.09 (7), Stats., we are confined to questions of law unless the findings of fact are not within the power of the commission to make or are a result of fraud. An award is not within the power of the Industrial Commission to make if it is based on speculation and conjecture or does not have evidence to sustain it. Hills Dry Goods Co. v. Industrial Comm. (1935), 217 Wis. 76, 258 N. W. 336. Evidence to sustain the award need not constitute the preponderance of the evidence. It is misleading to state that the “some credible evidence” rule applies to an award of the Industrial Commission because we review the evidence for *343the purpose of determining whether the Industrial Commission had power to make the award, while in reviewing a jury’s verdict we examine the evidence not in respect to power but in respect to the quantum of proof necessary to sustain the award on its merits.
In this case I believe the evidence presented only a question of law which the Industrial Commission erroneously decided.