Court Opinion

ID: 9792492
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:30:06.151909+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:42.843938
License: Public Domain

SUMMERS, Justice,
dissenting.
The issue is whether an Order of a three judge panel of the Workers’ Compensation Court modifying a trial judge’s earlier Order may be sustained in the absence of a Designation of Record accompanying the initial appeal from the trial judge to the three judge panel. My conclusion is that the appealing parties have failed to show that such an instrument was essential to the validity of the three judge panel’s Order. The panel’s Order favoring claimant in this case should be sustained.
The trial judge found that Patricia May-berry sustained a compensable injury to her left arm and left hand. She appealed to a three judge panel, which affirmed the earlier order in part but also modified it in finding that Mayberry had additionally sustained a compensable injury to her right shoulder. The employer and insurance carrier then appealed the Order of the three judge panel.
On their appeal the only argument made by the employer and insurance carrier was that no Designation of Record had been filed by the claimant with her appeal to the three judge panel, and that because of this deficiency the panel had no record before it on which to base its decision. The claimant countered with the argument that on appeal to the three judge panel “neither party requested a transcript and the only record before the Review Panel were the doctor’s reports which had been admitted into evidence”. The majority accepts the employer’s position and holds that the “history alone [as contained in admitted medical reports] — without this underlying lay testimony — may not afford support for finding that a claimant has sustained a work-related injury.”
Rule 28 of the Workers’ Compensation Court does not expressly require the filing of a Designation of Record. It states in pertinent part:
Rule 28. Appeals
A. Appeals to the three judge panel may be taken by filing an original and three copies of a request for review within ten (10) days from the date the order appealed from was stamp filed by the Court. The request for review shall include:
(1) The name of the trial judge from whose decision the appeal is taken;
(2) A copy of the order appealed;
(3) A statement of each conclusion of law and finding of fact urged as error; and
(4) A brief statement of the relief sought. No response to a request for review is necessary. Appeals to the three judge panel shall be strictly on the record made before the trial court. No new evidence shall be allowed. ...
C.If a basis of the appeal involves medical evidence, copies of the medical evidence shall be attached to the original and all copies of the request for review.” 85 O.S.Supp.1987, Ch.4, App. (emphasis added)
A short review of the function of a Designation of Record demonstrates that such is not necessary in the Workers’ Compensation Court. A Designation of Record is currently required in civil appellate practice by Rule 1.20 of the Rules of Appellate Procedure in Civil Cases. 12 O.S.1981, Ch. 15, App. 2. It is an instrument filed in the office of the Clerk of the trial court, for the purpose of identifying “pertinent instruments filed in the case and of proceedings and evidence adduced which are sought to be included on the record on appeal.” Id. at Rule 1.20. The Clerk assembles, numbers, indexes, and binds the instruments so *244designated, and then certifies such under the seal of the Clerk. Id. at Rule 1.25.
The primary importance of a designated record for appellate review is not that the pages are numbered, indexed, or clipped together, but that it is certified as the record of the inferior court. The certification of the Clerk is a declaration that the material bound and transmitted to an appellate court is that which is, in fact, contained in the record of the inferior one. In this way a second court can have judicial knowledge of those records of the first, and base its decision thereon. Instruments not so certified are “extra-judicial”, and usually beyond the cognizance of the appellate court. Chamberlin v. Chamberlin, 720 P.2d 721, 724 (Okla.1986); Muncrief v. Memorial Hospital of Southern Oklahoma, 767 P.2d 400, 402 (Okla.1988).
But an appeal from a trial judge of the Workers’ Compensation Court to the three judge panel of that same court is not an appeal from one court to a different court; it is rather an intra-court re-examination of the decision made by the trial judge. Parks v. Norman Municipal Hospital, 684 P.2d 548 (Okla.1984). Rule 28 provides that “Appeals to the three judge panel shall be strictly on the record made before the trial court”. When an order is appealed to the three judge panel the record is already before the Workers’ Compensation Court.
An appeal to a three judge panel is also statutorily authorized. 85 O.S.Supp.1986, § 3.6. This statutory procedure requires the filing of a timely notice of appeal with the Administrator and payment of costs in the amount of $100. The review of the three judge panel is statutorily limited to the record made before the trial judge, and its order must be based upon an examination of that record. 85 O.S.Supp.1986, § 3.6(A). See also, City of Frederick v. Elmore, 587 P.2d 1365, 1367 (Okla.1978), (the State Industrial Court must review the record and enter the appropriate order). This appellate record must be in a form reviewable by the panel. For example, if a transcript of proceedings is necessary for review of the errors raised, then the appellant must bear the burden of furnishing a copy thereof to the panel in a timely manner. Cf. 85 O.S.1981, § 93.1 (cost of a transcript is paid by the party requesting a copy thereof, and the reporter furnishes copies to the court and opposing parties without additional charge). But neither § 3.6 nor Rule 28 requires the filing of a Designation of Record, and nothing has been presented to this court to indicate that a claimant is required to file such to have a lawful review at the three judge panel level.1
The Order under review in the present case states that “After reviewing the record in this case, said Judges find that parts of said order were against the clear weight of the evidence and hence the order of the Trial Judge ... should be and the same is hereby MODIFIED AND AFFIRMED AS FOLLOWS". The Order states on its face that the panel reviewed the evidence. The appealing employer and insurance carrier have not shown that the panel failed to examine the relevant portions of the record, including the medical reports in evidence. They have not shown that the plaintiff’s medical report failed to include a history that would support a finding of a work-related injury to her right shoulder. In fact they, although bearing the burden of being the appealing parties, did not designate for our review a record containing any of the transcript of proceedings nor any of the exhibits offered and admitted into evidence.
This court reviews a panel-altered factual determination by the any-competent-evidence test. Parks v. Norman Municipal Hospital, 684 P.2d 548, 549 (Okla.1984). Only in the absence of competent evidence will we exercise our supervisory authority to vacate an award. Parks at 552. If an appealing party would have us vacate an award for lack of competent evidence it should furnish us a record whereby the *245absence of such evidence may be established. We should not be called upon to presume that the panel’s Order was erroneous. Ford v. Johnston Testers, Inc., 376 P.2d 338, 341 (Okla.1962). I would sustain the Order of the three judge panel.
Justice DOOLIN advises that he would do likewise.

. Although the filing of a Designation of Record is not required, neither is it prohibited. A litigant may file such to inform the three judge panel that a transcript has been requested, or to assure that no medical report is overlooked, or otherwise inform the panel.