Court Opinion

ID: 9587355
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:21:18.175107+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:36.265273
License: Public Domain

BAKES, Chief Justice,
concurring in result and dissenting in part:
I concur in the result reached by the Court in this case, which affirms the Industrial Commission’s order. However, that portion of the Court’s opinion holding that it was error (albeit harmless) for the Commission to refuse the admission of testimony from a medical textbook is contrary to our prior cases, the case law from other jurisdictions, and the Idaho Rules of Evidence.
As the Court’s opinion points out, the claimant suffered from a skin condition (ringworm), and there was an issue as to the cause of that condition. At the hearing, the claimant’s own doctor testified that the ringworm was not job-related, but spread to her hands from her own feet. In an attempt to prove her claim, in spite of her own doctor’s opinion, the claimant, proceeding pro se, had her daughter read an excerpt from an undisclosed medical book to the commission. The colloquy at the hearing went as follows:
Mr. Geddes: Do you have some testimony that you want to give today?
The Witness: Okay. Can I read out of this book?
Mr. Bowen: What are you reading out of?
The Witness: Medical books.
Mr. Bowen: Not as far as I am concerned, but you can ask these gentlemen here. I would object.
The Witness: It just tells, you know, some things that, you know, what — like dermatitis and eczema and fungus infections can be caused from, you know, how they can be treated and so on.
Mr. Geddes: I am going to overrule the objection and let you go ahead. It’s irregular, but I’m going to let you go ahead. You’re not going to read a whole chapter, are you?
The Witness: I hope not. I could almost, but: “Fungal infections of the nails, toenails or fingernails or skin,” they can keep reoccurring, treatment doesn’t stop it____
Mr. Bowen: ... I’d move to strike the testimony, and I’d like a continuing objection to this line____
Mr. Geddes: Yeah, you’re not a medical doctor, are you?
The Witness: No. Do you want to read the book?
Mr. Geddes: That’s irregular, ma’am, and I’m going to grant the motion to strike the testimony that you’ve put forth here.
The Court’s opinion states that, “There was no reason for the Industrial Commission to strike Darlene Hagler’s testimony and readings from the medical treatise, or for the Commission to refuse to admit the treatise into evidence. The treatise was relevant and its admission into evidence would have been consistent with the policy in Industrial Commission proceedings, i.e., simplicity, accommodation of claimants, and justice.” Ante at 58. The statement is predicated on the claim that the Industrial Commission is not strictly bound to the rules of evidence; the general policy favoring simplicity and equity in worker’s compensation proceedings; and purports to be based upon portions of I.C. § 72-709(1) and 72-714(3). I do not believe that these rea*601sons support the conclusion reached by the majority opinion for the following reasons.
First and most importantly, this analysis is plainly foreclosed by prior Idaho cases that have addressed this issue, i.e., Hite v. Kulhenak Building Contractor, 96 Idaho 70, 524 P.2d 531 (1974), and also Thom v. Callahan, 97 Idaho 151, 540 P.2d 1330 (1975). The Hite case is directly on point. In Hite, the claimant suffered the loss of one kidney. The issue before the Commission was the extent of the claimant’s disability. Claimant produced an expert who testified that his disability was 75%. The employer’s expert testified that the claimant’s disability was only 10%. The employer’s expert based his testimony solely on information taken from the American Medical Association Guides to Evaluation of Permanent Impairment. The expert testified that the figure taken from the guides was the one that he used. He also stated that the guides were prepared by experts in the field of medical disability rating and that his testimony was based entirely upon the guides.
This Court upheld the ruling of the Industrial Commission to admit information taken from the AMA Guides, but, in so doing, carefully defined the circumstances under which testimony from medical books may be admitted. The Hite Court stated:
The legislature therefore must have intended that the Commission should have the discretionary power to consider any type of reliable, trustworthy evidence having probative value in the area of disability rating, even though that evidence may not be admissible in a court of law.
The guides in question were prepared by committees of experts in the field of disability compensation. None of those experts had any interest in the outcome of this case. The guides are recognized authority in the area of disability rating. They are, in short, trustworthy and reliable. Of course, it will still be necessary to introduce the evidence through witnesses who must be able to testify that they are recognized authority. By our decision today, we are not holding that the Industrial Commission can take notice of anything it desires. Only, that recognized treatises or works dealing with topics in which the Commission possesses expertise may be admitted into evidence through witnesses to be used as substantive evidence.
96 Idaho at 72, 524 P.2d 531. The foregoing excerpt points out the narrow use which may be made of medical treatises and expressly delineates the circumstances under which such evidence may be admitted. First, an expert witness must testify that the book or treatise in question is a recognized authority. Second, the treatise must be trustworthy and reliable. Third, the treatise must deal with an area in which the Commission has expertise, i.e., disability ratings. Finally, it is within the discretion of the Commission to allow such evidence in.
In this case the record reflects that none of these requirements were met. Neither claimant nor her daughter were medical doctors or experts capable of giving the requisite recognition to the authoritativeness of the text from which they read. The claimant’s daughter did not demonstrate, nor, not being an expert, could she have demonstrated that the textbook in question was a recognized, reliable or trustworthy authority on the subject at issue. The claimant’s daughter did not even disclose the name of the book. For all we know, the book may have been a Reader’s Digest home medicine guide. Moreover, the cause, origin, and nature of skin diseases is not an area in which we might conclude that the Commission has particular expertise, as was the situation in the Hite case which dealt with disability rating guides, a subject which the Commission considers nearly every day. Additionally, it was within the discretion of the Commission to rule on that testimony, as the Hite case clearly spells out. It is quite clear, then, under the factors set out in Hite, that the Commission in the present case did not abuse its discretion in not allowing Hagler to quote from the undisclosed “medical book.”
Other courts that have addressed this issue have held that medical treatises are *602not properly admissible as substantive evidence in a worker’s compensation hearing. See 17 ALR3d 993 and cases cited therein. Those cases follow the general evidence rule that such medical books are not admissible even when they are properly identified and authenticated and shown to be recognized as standard authorities, because their admission in evidence would, in effect, admit the testimony of the author of the book without affording opposing counsel any opportunity to cross examine him. They are hearsay. These cases are all predicated on the same policy expressed in our evidence rules dealing with admission of medical textbooks at trial. Idaho Rule of Evidence 803(18) provides:
Rule 803. Hearsay exceptions; availability of declarant immaterial.—
(18) Learned treatises. To the extent called to the attention of an expert witness upon cross-examination or relied upon by him in direct examination, statements contained in published treatises, periodicals, or pamphlets on a subject of history, medicine, or other science or arts, established as a reliable authority by testimony or admission of the witness or by other expert testimony or by judicial notice. If admitted, the statements may be read into evidence but may not be received as exhibits, except upon motion and order for good cause shown.
Those cases, and Rule 803(18), all require that, prior to the admission of testimony from a medical textbook or treatise, a sufficient foundation must be laid, and then the testimony is only allowed for the purposes of impeachment. See, e.g., Lundstrom v. Brekke Enterprises, Inc., 115 Idaho 156, 765 P.2d 667 (1988). Here, there was no foundation laid, and the reading from the book was offered for substantive purposes. It does not fit any of our evidence rules or case law for admission of evidence.
Accordingly, I concur in the Court’s decision affirming the Industrial Commission’s order, but I dissent from the Court’s conclusion that the Commission erred in refusing to admit into evidence the daughter’s reading from the alleged medical treatise.
JOHNSON, J., concurs.