Court Opinion

ID: 9771189
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 16:36:26.849946+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:26.841922
License: Public Domain

John E. Jennings, Chief Judge, concurring. I agree with the dissent that we may raise on our own motion the question of the adequacy of the Commission’s findings for review. I cannot agree, however, that under the circumstances presented those findings are inadequate. This case is not like Wright v. American Transp., 18 Ark. App. 18, 709 S.W.2d 107 (1986). There the Commission in a two sentence opinion found that the claimant failed to meet her burden of proof and “affirmed” the decision of the administrative law judge. Here, the Commission’s opinion runs seven pages. The dissenting opinion runs an additional four. As the majority opinion states, the Commission’s opinion focuses on the question of “injury” and it did so because this was the question that the parties focused on. The question of whether the claimant received a compensable injury was dependent on credibility issues which were the primary arguments made before the Commission and the primary argument made in this court. It is apparent that the question of “disability,” in the event a compen-sable injury was found by the Commission, was really not contested before the Commission and in reality is not argued here. This is probably because of the statement in the administrative law judge’s opinion that it was the opinion of the claimant’s family doctor, Dr. Badshah, that “the claimant has remained temporarily, totally disabled since her injury.” The appellant did note in a brief submitted to the Commission that Dr. McAlister had x-rayed the claimant, that the x-rays were normal, and that “no objective findings supporting claimant’s complaints were found.” The Commission recognized the argument and stated: Respondents argue that claimant cannot meet her burden of proof because her treating physician [Badshah] has been unable to find objective evidence of an injury. However, there is no indication in the record that the treating physician even ordered x-rays. Further, the treating physician sought ‘permission to do MRI’s and EMG’s as these will help shed more light on her complaints’ but this has not been done due to respondent’s controversion of this claim. Even the dissenting commissioner tacitly found this to be an adequate response to the argument. I do not agree that the issue which both the majority and minority spend much effort to resolve has been raised. That issue is whether Ark. Code Ann. § ll-9-704(c) is applicable to an award of temporary disability. It was not raised by the appellant at any level of this proceeding, it was not decided by the ALJ or the Commission, and it is not even raised by the dissenting commissioner. The appellant’s argument before us is that the Commission’s decision is not supported by substantial evidence. Everyone but this court believes that this case turns on the credibility of the witnesses to the incident. Surely it is premature for us to decide an issue not ruled on by the Commission and neither argued nor briefed by the parties on appeal. Accordingly, I take no position on the issue. For the reasons stated I concur in the affirmance of the Commission’s decision.