Court Opinion

ID: 9694124
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 17:25:17.170775+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:19:56.695610
License: Public Domain

OTIS, Justice
(dissenting).
This is a claim for benefits arising out of a specific personal injury which the employ*783ee alleges occurred on October 15, 1975, when she “slipped on [a] piece of fish injuring [her] back”, while employed by relators.
The court of appeals acknowledges it is a “borderline” case but affirms the findings of the compensation judge that on October 15, 1975, the employee was injured in the course of her employment. This court now holds that it is impossible to determine whether the court of appeals found the injury occurred from a specific incident October 15 or was the cumulative effect of activities October 14 and 15. Notwithstanding the fact the only claim the employee made was that she slipped on a piece of fish on October 15, this court sustains a finding that benefits will be awarded for a wholly different disability arising out of her testimony she had been lifting heavy crates on October 14 and 15.
Although the employee testified she slipped and injured her back on October 1, 1975, she made no complaint of back injury at the time and missed no work. Nor did she mention any back problems to her physician on October 28, in discussing with him the October 1 incident or mention the matter when hospitalized November 12. In December she told another physician that she had no back problems prior to October 14.
The injury which she claims occurred on October 15 while lifting a box was not seen or verified by any coworkers in a position to observe her at work, and she made no mention of the incident to her employer or to others when subsequently hospitalized on two occasions.
On direct examination the employee revealed only one prior back injury. When confronted with medical records she conceded that she had had polio at 19; had been hospitalized in 1969 for treatment of her back; in 1970 and 1971 she was treated for low back pain; and in 1974 was an outpatient at a hospital as a result of falling from a ladder, injuring her hip and back.
I submit that unless the rules imposing on claimants the burden of proof, and the necessity for sustaining that burden by a fair preponderance of evidence, are to be totally abrogated in workers compensation matters, this “borderline” case should be reversed.