Court Opinion

ID: 9585474
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:00:54.19528+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:47:15.697791
License: Public Domain

Pope, Chief Judge,
concurring specially.
While I fully concur with the majority’s decision, I write separately to emphasize why the superior court’s order must be affirmed in this case. The dissenters in this case seek to substitute themselves as the factfinders in this workers’ compensation case in lieu of the board. In so doing the dissenters ignore the “any evidence” standard of review by which this court is bound in workers’ compensation cases. “ ‘ “[T]his court is [not] authorized to reverse an award because in its opinion the prevailing party did not carry the burden of proving a fact necessary to sustain its position [,] if such fact is nevertheless supported by some competent evidence.” (Cit.)’ [Cit.]” Ero Indus. v. Phillips, 207 Ga. App. 432, 434 (428 SE2d 396) (1993).
In this case the claimant’s doctor testified that if the claimant smoked, ate the wrong foods and got no exercise due to his job, the job would have contributed to his heart attack. Based on the claimant’s testimony, the ALJ found that he had shown by a preponderance of the evidence that his job as a long-distance truck driver made it difficult for him to exercise or maintain a healthy diet. This was sufficient evidence for the ALJ and later the board to conclude that claimant had established the necessary causal nexus between his employment and heart attack to render the claim compensable. Regardless of whether members of this court would have reached the same conclusion if sitting as the finder of fact or whether we sanction certain of the claimant’s “lifestyle choices,” our standard of review in *65workers’ compensation cases requires us to affirm the superior court in this case.