Court Opinion

ID: 9559724
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 17:34:34.523725+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:11:35.830602
License: Public Domain

UDALL, Chief Justice
(dissenting).
If I understand the import of this last statement (“The ‘imponderables’ must be supported by evidence in the record.”), it is laying down a rule that awards will not be sustained hereafter unless the commission spells out in detail the factors it considered and the relative weight each was given. The word “imponderable” literally means “incapable of being weighed”. Webster’s New International Dictionary, Section Edition. We have no right to require the commissioners to open their minds and pour out the mental processes by which they arrive at a decision. Their exercise of judgment and discretion should be accorded the same treatment and consideration as given judicial pronouncements. I submit this holding places an intolerable burden on the commission.
The four factors enumerated in section 56-9S7(d), supra, are not all inclusive in determining the percentage of disability for the statute states that: “ * * * consideration shall be given, among other things, to any previous disability, the occupation of the injured employee, the nature of the physical injury, and the age of the employee at the time of the injury. * * * ” (Emphasis supplied.)
Hence with all the imponderables that must necessarily be considered in arriving at the amount of an award, the most that should be expected of the industrial commission is an “approximation”.
*82It seems to me that the court is establishing a dangerous precedent in the setting aside of this award, as in effect it is directing the commission to allow the petitioner a specific percentage of loss of earning capacity that is a further increase of 3.6%. The figure of 23.6% is admittedly predicated on a mere mathematical calculation of the one factor, i. e., the difference in wages earned “now” and “then”.
Up to this time it has been the rule in these industrial appeals that our authority was limited to. affirming or setting aside an award and that we were without jurisdiction to do what is indirectly being done in the instant case, i. e., reverse with directions. Red Rover Copper Co. v. Industrial Comm., 58 Ariz. 203, 118 P.2d 1102, 137 A.L.R. 740; King v. Orr, 59 Ariz. 234, 125 P.2d 699; Kennecott Copper Co. v. Industrial Comm., 62 Ariz. 516, 158 P.2d 887.
Furthermore this decision flies squarely in the face of the pronouncement in Hoffman v. Brophy, supra, (so greatly relied upon by the majority) which states: “ * * * that it is impossible to determine with mathematical certainty the exact extent of the loss of earning power when it is only partial in its nature, * * (Emphasis supplied.)
The writer is not dissenting because I object to the inconsequential increase of $7.15 per month that will be given the petitioner, but rather for the basic reasons heretofore stated that I would affirm the award.