Court Opinion

ID: 9569312
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:12:45.742572+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:53:15.059087
License: Public Domain

BAKES, Justice,
concurring in the reversal:
I concur with the Court’s statement that “employment need only contribute to the disability, not ‘precipitate’ it or be the cause first in time that ultimately produces the result.” Ante at 1051-1052, 739 P.2d at 350-351. I believe the commission erred when it held, as a matter of law, that “[t]here is no evidence relating to the cause of the blackout itself, and therefore, claimant cannot establish that the blackout, and the panic disorder which results from it, arises out of the Claimant’s employment.” However, both the Court and the commission apparently are of the view, at least in this case, that the issue of causation is a question of law rather than a question *1055of fact.1 The questions of (1) whether the claimant had a “panic disorder”; (2) whether it arose out of the claimant’s employment; and (3) whether or not it constituted an occupational disease as defined in I.C. § 72-102(17), are, in my opinion, all questions of fact rather than questions of law, which the commission must decide from the evidence before it. I agree with the Court that evidence of a licensed psychologist is admissible as expert testimony to establish the claim. Since it appears that the commission, in its Conclusion of Law II, erroneously concluded as a matter of law that the “claimant cannot establish that the blackout, and the panic disorder which results from it, arises out of Claimant’s employment,” the commission’s decision must be reversed and the matter remanded for further proceedings. However, I cannot agree with the suggestions in the majority opinion that any of the three issues listed above can, on this record, be decided as questions of law, rather than questions of fact.

. The Court’s opinion, ante at 1051, 739 P.2d at 350, quoting from the Standards of Review in State and Federal Courts, § 3.2, Idaho Appellate Handbook (Idaho Law Foundation, Inc., 1985), states: “An appellate court is expected to declare the law and may substitute its view for that of a trial court or agency upon a legal issue." While this is an accurate statement of our constitutional authority under Art. 5, § 9, of the Idaho Constitution which limits our review of decisions of the Industrial Commission to "questions of law,” that limitation cannot be so easily circumvented by merely stating that factual "issues turn upon the proper application of the law to the undisputed facts,” ante at 1051, 739 P.2d at 350, and then ruling that issues such as causation, or whether or not a condition is an occupational disease which arises out of the employment, are questions of law rather than questions of fact.