Court Opinion

ID: 9791290
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:08:31.977177+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:35.214973
License: Public Domain

BAKES, Chief Justice,
concurring specially:
I concur with the majority’s conclusion that the Industrial Commission did not err in concluding that, on the facts of this case, the claimant’s apparent work-induced cedar dust allergy was not “manifest” until the claimant received the results of the cedar dust challenge test on June 11, 1985. Given this employee’s prior allergic respiratory problems, the Commission concluded that until he received the results of the cedar dust challenge test the claimant was uncertain as to the precise cause of his respiratory problems. However, absent the pri- or allergic respiratory problems, the Commission might well have concluded otherwise in this case. Therefore, I believe the Court goes too far when it states “that for purposes of the notice and filing requirements of I.C. § 72-448, a disease is not manifest until its cause has been clearly identified by competent medical authority as related to the employee’s work and that information has been communicated to the employee.” Ante at 961, 793 P.2d at 193. A more appropriate test, and a test which would be consistent with the several definitions of “manifest” cited by the majority in its opinion, ante at 961, 793 P.2d at 193, should be that if a worker reasonably should have known that his occupation is causing or has caused an occupational disease, then it is manifest. Under the majority’s definition, if the claimant never sees a “competent medical authority” then the time prescribed by the legislature in I.C. § 72-448 would never begin to run. The majority’s definition violates the intent of I.C. § 72-448.