Court Opinion

ID: 9758666
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 23:39:47.555022+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:53.879961
License: Public Domain

JOHN Mauzy Pittman, Judge, dissenting. I dissent from the denial of appellee’s petition for rehearing. Although the majority opinion states that it is granting rehearing in this case, that is true only in a narrow and technical sense. The relief granted in the majority opinion was requested as a secondary and alternative remedy in the event that we were to deny the primary aspect of appellee’s petition for rehearing, namely appellee’s contention that our original opinion was erroneous because we improperly substituted our interpretation of medical evidence for that of the Commission, and because we usurped the Commission’s function as fact-finder by weighing and giving credence to appellant’s subjective statements that her symptoms had improved following the surgical procedure. By granting the alternative request for relief, the majority is denying the primary request sub silentio. The salient facts are few. Appellant requested surgery. Physicians differed in their predictions of whether surgery would improve her condition. The surgery was performed. Appellant told her surgeon and the Commission that her condition was improved by the surgery and requested that it be paid for by the appellee. The Commission denied the request on the grounds that appellant had failed to prove that the surgery was reasonable and necessary for treatment of her injury; the Commission viewed as evenly balanced, at best, the various physicians’ predictions as to whether that surgery would help her. This court reversed, finding that she had been helped by the surgery and that the surgery was reasonable and necessary for treatment of appellant’s injury. Several errors are apparent. The Commission’s opinion is flawed because the facts that it relies upon do not support its conclusion. A physician’s prediction that surgery will not be therapeutic, standing alone, is not a substantial basis for denying relief when there is evidence before the Commission concerning the actual outcome of the surgery. In the absence of any discussion of the surgery’s outcome, the Commission’s findings in this case were insufficient to justify denial of relief, and we should therefore reverse and remand for more explicit findings consistent with Wright v. American Transportation, 18 Ark. App. 18, 709 S.W.2d 107 (1986); see also Lowe v. Car Care Marketing, 53 Ark. App. 100, 919 S.W.2d 520 (1996) (reversed and remanded for specific findings where, while Commission may have determined claimant was not a credible witness, the opinion did not so state). The Commission committed an error of form: its opinion was too incomplete for us to determine whether it was made in accordance with the law. The majority, however, has committed errors of substance, and it is plain upon the face of its opinion that it has not conformed with the law. First, the majority erroneously substitutes its interpretation of the conflicting, pre-surgical medical evidence. Our law is clear that the Commission has the duty of weighing medical evidence and, if the evidence is conflicting, its resolution is a question of fact for the Commission. Geo Specialty Chemical v. Clingan, 69 Ark. App. 369, 13 S.W.3d 218 (2000). The interpretation given to medical evidence by the Commission has the weight and force of a jury verdict, id., and this court is powerless to reverse the Commission’s decision regarding which medical evidence that it chooses to accept when that evidence is conflicting. Whaley v. Hardee’s, 51 Ark. App. 166, 912 S.W.2d 14 (1995). The majority then rightly concludes that the Commission’s opinion does not explain its outcome, and correctly states that post-surgical improvement, or lack thereof, should be considered under Winslow v. D & B Mechanical Contractors, 69 Ark. App. 285, 13 S.W.3d 180 (2000). However, rather than remanding for the Commission to consider the evidence of post-surgical improvement, the majority proceeds to make findings of its own to the effect that appellant was, in fact, helped by the surgery. This is clearly in contravention of the law. The evidence of post-surgical improvement in this case derives ultimately from the appellant herself in the form of her statements to her physician and her testimony before the Commission. The majority has not, and cannot, explain why the Commission must believe this evidence. It is axiomatic that the testimony of an interested party is never considered uncontroverted, but is instead considered to be disputed as a matter of law. Ester v. National Home Centers, Inc., 335 Ark. 356, 981 S.W.2d 91 (1998); Knoles v. Salazar, 298 Ark. 281, 766 S.W.2d 613 (1989); Waterfield v. Quimby, 277 Ark. 472, 644 S.W.2d 241 (1982); Lambert v. Gerber Products Co., 14 Ark. App. 88, 684 S.W.2d 842 (1985). The rule that the Commission cannot arbitrarily reject the testimony of a witness has no application here. As stated, to the extent that appellant’s surgeon mentioned appellant’s post-surgical improvement, his statements were based on appellant’s subjective statements to him that her pain had lessened. The assertion by appellant’s attorney in his motion for reconsideration that post-surgical pain improvement had allowed appellant to return to work since the hearing is not evidence; it is, at most, a proffer in support of his motion and cannot be considered by this court as established fact to corroborate her testimony. Moreover, even if the substance of counsel’s assertion were in evidence, it would have to be gauged against the medical evidence that appellant’s pre-surgical complaints of pain were exaggerated, and that is the Commission’s function; not this court’s. To hold, as the majority apparently does, that it would have been “arbitrary” for the Commission to reject the uncorroborated, self-serving, controverted, subjective testimony of appellant, the person most interested in the outcome of the case, is patently wrong. The Commission, then, was free to reject appellant’s testimony if it was found to be incredible, and was likewise free to believe this testimony if it found it to be worthy of bekef. See Ringier America v. Combs, 41 Ark. App. 47, 849 S.W.2d 1 (1993); Norman v. Norman, 268 Ark. 842, 596 S.W.2d 361 (Ark. App. 1980). The court of appeals, however, is not free to do either. It is the Commission’s duty to make and enter findings of fact and to decide the issues before it by determining whether the party having the burden of proof on an issue has established it by a preponderance of the evidence. S & S Construction, Inc. v. Coplin, 65 Ark. App. 251, 986 S.W.2d 132 (1999). Appellate courts are not permitted to review decisions of tbe Commission de novo on the record or make findings of fact on matters that the Commission should have considered but did not. See id. The majority opinion correctly states that the Commission is not an appellate court. It would be well for us to remember that we are not fact-finders. I respectfully dissent.