Court Opinion

ID: 9568464
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:03:57.122601+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:43:15.337447
License: Public Domain

Springer, J.,
with whom Rose, J., agrees,
dissenting:
The claimant in this case has presented a weak but still supportable claim for compensation. The record contains medical evidence that the beating suffered by Ms. Horne was “related to” her disability. For me this is enough.
The claimant’s attorney submitted in support of Ms. Horne’s claim only two hearsay letters, both from Ms. Horne’s doctor, Jim Christensen, M.D., one dated March 2, 1993, the other, June 7, 1993. The March 2 letter from Dr. Christensen states only that it is “entirely possible that there is a causal relationship between her traumatic injury to her neck and throat and the recrudescence of the vocal cord dysfunction.” This letter is totally useless on its face and should not have been submitted. I agree with the majority opinion that compensation “cannot be based solely upon possibilities and speculative testimony.” The June 7 letter from Dr. Christensen (in which the doctor says that the injury is related to the disability) is also problematic; but, in my view, it is sufficient to support Ms. Horne’s claim.
I trace the denial of Ms. Horne’s claim entirely to the slip-shod manner in which her attorney submitted the claim. It appears to me that Dr. Christensen was in a position to establish the probability that Ms. Horne’s “vocal cord dysfunction”1 was caused by her work-connected throat injury. It would not have been much trouble for counsel to have submitted a physician’s affidavit stating that it was medically probable that the injury caused the throat and neck condition. As matters stand, the only basis for granting the claim must be found in Dr. Christensen’s letter of *540June 7, 1993, in which he states that he “believefs] that her neck trauma is related to her vocal cord dysfunction.” There is little excuse for counsel to have submitted such a statement as the only support for this claim. I can understand why the majority would reject this letter as proof of causation; but, as I have said, I would allow the claim, based on the doctor’s statement of opinion or belief.
I would give a liberal construction to Dr. Christensen’s opinion that he believes the trauma “is related to” Ms. Horne’s present condition and accept it as being sufficient to establish a causal relationship. If a doctor were to say a patient’s abdominal pain was “related to” an inflamed appendix, I think that I would understand that the pain was caused by appendicitis. In my view, the majority is being hypercritical when it rules, as a matter of law, that “related to” does not mean “caused by” in the present context. It is for this reason that I dissent.

The injury in this case was incurred during the course of a vicious criminal assault, and from my reading of the record, it is clear that the assault caused the neck and throat injuries that are the subject of this opinion.