Court Opinion

ID: 9773734
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:57:06.76408+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:56.829407
License: Public Domain

Terry Crabtree, Judge, concurring. The accompanying majority opinion sufficiently states the facts surrounding this case, and I agree in substance with the majority opinion’s application of the existing law. However, I think it is worth emphasizing the following excerpt from the appellant’s abstract of the administrative law judge’s decision: After observing the demeanor of the claimant as a witness, I found her testimony concerning the symptoms she was experiencing with her knee to be credible. I find that her dramatic weight loss under the directions of Dr. Geller indicates that she is cooperating in her medical treatment and has sincere desire to return to a working status. We have often said that the credibility of witnesses and the weight to be given their testimony are matters solely within the province of the Commission. See, e.g., Whaley v. Hardee's, 51 Ark. App. 166, 912 S.W.2d 14 (1995); Maxwell v. Carl Bierbaum, Inc., 48 Ark. App. 159, 893 S.W.2d 346 (1995); Bartlett v. Mead Con tainerboard, 47 Ark. App. 181, 888 S.W.2d 314 (1994). Further, when the Commission issues an opinion of its own, we give no weight to the ALJ’s opinion. Jane Traylor, Inc. v. Cooksey, 31 Ark. App. 245, 792 S.W.2d 351 (1990). Here, the medical evidence, in the form of Dr. Slater’s findings, supports the Commission’s decision. However, it is troubling that Dr. Slater, a physician selected by the appellee, apparently spent less than ten minutes with appellant. Further, the ALJ specifically assessed appellant’s credibility — favorably — and the Commission ignored this determination in favor of the single report from the company doctor disputing all of appellant’s well-documented claims. Based on the current state of the law, this case must be affirmed. However, it illustrates vividly the legal fiction the Commission engages in when it purports to rule on the credibility of witnesses on a cold record while rejecting the face-to-face determination of the ALJ. This is counterintuitive and contrary to the traditional logic behind appellate courts’ deference to the trier of fact on issues of credibility. In the present case, the court must defer to a Commission, a politically appointed body of two distinct interest groups with a chairman who always casts the swing vote, that typically sees no witnesses, hears no live testimony, and is limited to the same cold record as the court. Such deference, though clearly the state of the law, is ill-advised and contrary to the wisdom supporting the deference this court typically gives in other areas of the law to trial judges and juries — the only ones throughout the process who have the opportunity to look witnesses in the eye and discern their credibility.