Court Opinion

ID: 9680948
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:41:30.438275+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:31.535643
License: Public Domain

Judith Rogers, Judge, concurring. I concur in the affirmance of this case because I believe it is the province of the Commission, under the law, to decide if the appellee’s injury was a gradual onset injury and the major cause of her current disability and need’for treatment. However, I am disturbed by a few aspects of the Commission’s opinion. First, I am bothered by the dearth of findings of the ALJ and the Commission. But in reading the Commission’s opinion, it appears to me that it is implicit in the decision that appellee’s need for treatment was compensable. I am also concerned by the fact that the Commission did not state with more certainty appellee’s recurrence of shoulder pain that had twice before been treated as compensable by the company and was caused by the motions of pulling and lifting the air gun. In addition, I find the Commission’s reliance on the lack of evidence that appellee had no other trauma or accident troubling. It appears that the Commission shifted the burden of proving a compensable injury from the claimant to the employer. However, the Commission found appellee’s testimony credible and concluded that she sustained a gradual onset injury which was caused or aggravated by the physical tasks required in her job. I certainly cannot say that there is no substantial evidence to support the Commission’s decision.