Court Opinion

ID: 9449958
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 16:29:25.686443+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:04.478466
License: Public Domain

BURGER, Circuit Judge
(dissenting):
Under the controlling opinions of this court we are required to affirm if there is any substantial evidence to support the action of the Commissioners. Here there is not only substantial but abundant evidence which shows that appellant’s condition is nothing more than an aggravation and intensification during his police tenure of gouty arthritis incident to the aging process. When asked “what is the connection between your work and these conditions you have?” appellant answered:
“A. I’ve had this for about eight or nine years and it seems to be growing worse. The only thing I can figure, by being on the right side, it could have been from cranking the motorcycle. I’ve had several injuries — the bad ones — seems to be that that side of my body is getting all the trouble.”
Appellant’s entire case as to the service causation of his condition rests on this naked assertion which at best showed that his condition could have been caused by his duties. No medical evidence supported his contention, so that he failed to carry his burden of proof before the Commissioners. I cannot treat the casual and equivocal comments of the medical member of the Board of Police and Fire Surgeons as sufficient to reject the findings and determination of the full Board. Moreover, all that doctor said was that appellant’s present arthritis was “caused by or aggrevated [sic] by his duties.” In short, he expressed no opinion as to which was the primary or dominant clause. Far from supporting a reversal this should compel affirmance. In a jury case a court would not permit a jury to speculate on this kind of evidence and it follows that we should not do so.
I would affirm the District Court’s action granting summary judgment for ap-pellees.