Court Opinion

ID: 9625515
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 07:43:15.540403+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:29:34.890138
License: Public Domain

HOLOHAN, Justice,
specially concurring.
From my review of the record in this case, the hearing officer and the carrier both realize that economic conditions must be the sole cause of the workman’s inability to secure gainful employment. The confusion in this case arises in the same area as that covered in Dean v. Industrial Commission, 113 Ariz. 285, 551 P.2d 554 (1976). It is in this regard that the carrier failed to sustain its burden of showing that not only was there employment which the claimant could do, but that there was a market or availability which was temporarily unavailable solely due to economic conditions.
The record shows that the claimant made a showing of an effort to obtain employment but was unsuccessful. The carrier through surveillance film taken by its agents, showed that the claimant was in fact capable of working, and the carrier presented evidence of some four or five occupations which the claimant could do. Each occupation would make use of his *131former skill as a carpenter, and some of the employers surveyed indicated that the claimant’s condition would not preclude employment if there were openings. Thereafter the claimant himself offered evidence of skills in which he could be employed, but the wage scales and hours available were much less than those occupations offered by the carrier.
There was also another very real difference between the occupations suggested by the carrier and that suggested by the claimant — employment availability. The carrier’s suggested positions were not available, but there was work available in the claimant’s suggested occupation. The carrier argued that the nonavailability was due to economic conditions.
The claimant contends that there were factors other than general economic conditions involved in his inability to secure employment in the suggested occupations. The fact of the matter was that there were no openings in the field. One of the employers in the field suggested by the carrier had not hired anyone in two years.
The hearing officer accepted the evidence of the carrier, and he adjusted the loss in earning capacity to reflect the difference between the earnings before the accident and the earnings which could have been made from one of the occupations suggested by the carrier.
Although the evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to sustaining an award, Micucci v. Industrial Commission, 108 Ariz. 194, 494 P.2d 1324 (1972), the evidence must demonstrate the reasonableness of the commission’s determination. Dean v. Industrial Commission, supra. Implicit in the Dean case is the requirement that employment availability be a reality before the earnings of any given employment may be used to reduce the amount of loss in earning capacity. Economic conditions may cause temporary unavailability of employment, and such conditions do not preclude the consideration of the wages for suitable employment which would be available to the claimant except for the current economic conditions.
In the case at issue, the hearing officer concluded that the claimant could likely find suitable employment in the field under normal economic conditions. The Court of Appeals pointed out in its memorandum decision that there was not sufficient evidence presented to meet the standard of reasonableness. See Germany v. Industrial Commission, 20 Ariz.App. 576, 514 P.2d 747 (1973). The appellate court concluded that the carrier had failed to present evidence that there was employment reasonably available to the claimant in the occupation selected by the hearing officer.
Upon review this court has concluded that the carrier did not sustain its burden in showing that claimant’s inability to obtain work was due solely to economic conditions. From the holding of the court I have concluded that this is another way of saying what the Court of Appeals originally held— that the carrier had not met its burden of going forward with the evidence showing the availability of suitable employment.