Court Opinion

ID: 9855752
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:30:22.41258+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:36:58.572302
License: Public Domain

OTIS, Justice
(dissenting).
As the majority opinion correctly points out, this employee did indeed impose a list of restrictions on any job that she would accept. She refused to work in downtown Minneapolis; she refused to work further than 10 miles from home; she refused to work with a microscope; and she would work only on the day shift. The vocational counselor testified that it was a “frustrating experience” working with the employee because she kept coming up with excuses for not interviewing for or accepting jobs. Under these circumstances I would hold that the employee effectively withdrew herself from the labor market and that she was not totally disabled. See Saenger v. Liberty Carton Co., 281 N.W.2d 693 (Minn.1979).
In addition, the medical testimony does not in my opinion support the extent of the injury Respondent claims. She alleges that injury to her hand causes pain which can be felt in her neck. The expert testimony of several doctors, however, reveals no objective sign of disability. As of March 1980, Dr. Svendsen could not account for the employee’s complaints. . He could find nothing wrong with her hand and there were no objective sighs of limited mobility in the employee’s wrist or neck. As of March 1979, Dr. Hamel’s reports reveal that he was unable to explain the cause of the employee’s wrist problems. Unless she was suffering from symptoms which linger after the injury has healed, the weight of the expert medical testimony reveals “physical facts which speak the truth unerringly.” Turay v. Allied Enterprises, Inc., 256 N.W.2d 71, 74 (Minn.1977). The testimony of the employee about her continuing injury was largely discredited.
*439The employee did not make a sincere effort to return to work which she could reasonably be expected to do and rejected job opportunities which were suited to her physical limitations. Accordingly, in my opinion, the compensation judge’s termination of weekly benefits was proper and the decision of the majority of the court of appeals should be reversed,