Court Opinion

ID: 9662901
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 23:21:42.888839+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:42.178660
License: Public Domain

Tom Glaze, Justice, concurring. I agree with the majority and write only to renew my concurring view in Black v. Riverside Furniture Co., 6 Ark. App. 370, 375, 642 S.W.2d 338, 341 (1982) (Glaze, J., concurring). Black involved a non-work related death case, not a disabling angina case. If the evidence in Black had shown Black’s angina pains had hastened his death, I believe the court would have held the claim compensable. Nonetheless, the medical evidence in Black was lacking in this respect, and the widow’s claim was properly denied. Here, appellant also relies upon Kempner’s v. Hall, 7 Ark. App. 181, 646 S.W.2d 31 (1983), but that case involved a heart attack, which the Workers’ Compensation Commission found work-related and compensable and the court of appeals affirmed. Again, disabling angina was not the issue there, but I point out that the court of appeals upheld Hall’s heart attack as compensable because the medical evidencé showed his work-related angina pains precipitated his myocardial infarction. The present case is the first one where an employee’s claim was based upon disabling angina. While there are dicta in Black (and mentioned in Kempner’s) that indicate angina pectoris is not compensable, the cases cited and relied on in Black do not support such a view. In fact, the Black decision cites Duffy v. State Accident Insurance Fund, 43 Or. App. 505, 603 P.2d 1191 (1979), but that case specifically notes that the Fund accepted angina attacks as compensable. In fact, the Workers’ Compensation referee and Board made a permanent partial disability award for the claimant’s angina condition and the Fund never challenged that award. Instead, the only issue raised by the Fund was its denial that it was responsible for the claimant’s underlying heart ailment. The Black opinion also relied upon Kostamo v. Marquette Iron Mining Co., 405 Mich. 105, 274 N.W.2d 411 (1979), which, in my opinion, is no authority for disallowing disabling angina. Kostamo involved five cases where the claimants suffered from arteriosclerotic heart disease. The Michigan Supreme Court simply affirmed the Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board in each case, four where the Board concluded the claimant failed to show a relationship between his heart attack or death and his employment and one where the Board held the claimant had met his burden of proof. None of the five cases in Kostamo involved the issue we have before us now, viz., whether disabling angina is compensable. Almost appellant’s entire argument is based upon Black and Kempner’s, which, for the reasons above, are neither controlling nor persuasive on the angina issue presented here. The majority opinion, on the other hand, sets forth sound logic and legal authority why angina, if shown to be work-related, should be compensable. The Commission found the claimant’s disabling angina related to his work conditions. Therefore, I agree with this court’s remand of the case to the Commission to determine the amount of benefits due the claimant.