Court Opinion

ID: 9646198
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 12:52:10.738924+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:35.375955
License: Public Domain

John Mauzy Pittman, Judge, dissenting. The appellant in the case at bar stated that, at approximately 11:00 p.m. on January 13, 1995, while taking a part out of a machine he was operating and replacing it with another part, his shoulder popped, and he experienced extreme pain. Appellant further stated that, as a result of this incident, he was deprived of the use of his left arm and shoulder and was unable to perform his job as he had done prior to this incident. While acknowledging that he had been treated for a similar problem with his left shoulder after chopping wood at home in November 1994, appellant testified that his problem in November was a mere ache that neither deprived him of the use of his arm nor caused him to miss any work. The Commission specifically found that appellant was a “most credible” witness. It then noted that appellant’s testimony was in conflict with medical evidence indicating that appellant’s problems following the incident at work were the same as those for which he was treated in November 1994, and that appellant suffered from chronic pain syndrome secondary to old injuries of the shoulders. The Commission resolved the conflict in favor of appellee. The majority of this court holds that the Commission’s opinion displays a substantial basis for denying appellant relief. I would reverse and remand for additional findings because the Commission’s opinion is too ambiguous to allow us to conduct any meaningful appellate review. The central mystery in this case is why the Commission, having specifically found that appellant’s testimony was credible and supported his claim, nevertheless denied him benefits. The Commission stated that it did so because the medical evidence was “conflicting,” and the majority accepts this as a sufficient finding to explain the denial of relief. I disagree. A satisfactory finding of fact must contain all the specific facts relevant to the contested issues so that the reviewing court can determine whether the Commission has resolved those issues in conformity with the law. Wright v. American Transportation, 18 Ark. App. 18, 709 S.W.2d 107 (1986). We cannot tell whether the Commission properly applied the law in the case at bar. Although the Commission tells us that the medical testimony conflicts with that of appellant, it fails to inform us of the nature of the conflict: Did the Commission believe that the work-related incident described by appellant never occurred, or that the incident was not characterized by sudden and severe pain, or that the effects of the incident were not as disabling as those described by appellant? The Commission could have taken any of these views of the facts, and some of them might have supported denial of benefits. We ultimately do not know, however, because the Commission’s opinion omitted the minimum prerequisite of judicial review: a “simple, straightforward statement of what happened.” Id. at 21, 709 S.W.2d at 109. Other possibilities exist. The Commission might have believed every word of appellant’s testimony and have denied benefits because it concluded that the substance of that testimony would not allow an award of benefits in light of the medical evidence that appellant had suffered from similar conditions in the past. This possibility has some merit; it would at least explain the central mystery of why the Commission apparently resolved a credibility issue against the “most credible” appellant. However, it presents other problems that are especially troubling in fight of the majority’s decision to affirm this case. For example, it seems to ignore the general rule that the employer takes the employee as he finds him, and that employment circumstances that aggravate preexisting conditions are compensable. See Public Employee Claims Division v. Tiner, 37 Ark. App. 23, 822 S.W.2d 400 (1992); see also Hubley v. Best Western-Governor’s Inn, 52 Ark. App. 226, 916 S.W.2d 143 (1996) (aggravation of a preexisting noncompensable condition by a compensable injury is itself compensable); Farmland Insurance Co. v. Dubois, 54 Ark. App. 141, 923 S.W.2d 883 (1996) (aggravation of preexisting condition stemming from a specific work-related incident need not be the major cause of claimant’s disability to be compensable); Kuhn v. Majestic Hotel, 324 Ark. 21, 918 S.W.2d 158 (1996) (Commission’s finding that there was no causal connection between fall and surgery reversed where record showed that claimant was able to work until he fell and contained no evidence that claimant’s earlier back problems caused the surgery). More cases could be cited, but it is meaningless and misleading to discuss law in the absence of facts. The central question in all cases alleging aggravation of a preexisting condition, of course, is whether the condition was exacerbated by an independent intervening cause. McDonald Equipment Co. v. Turner, 26 Ark. App. 264, 766 S.W.2d 936 (1989); Bearden Lumber Co. v. Bond, 7 Ark. App. 65, 644 S.W.2d 321 (1983). Here the Commission failed to tell us whether a work-related incident occurred, let alone whether such an incident constituted an independent intervening cause with respect to any disability that may have resulted. In the absence of such findings, any discussion of the law is pointless. In the case at bar, we attempt to guess what the Commission believed the facts to be. Our guesses may be clever, they may be informed, they may even be correct, but I submit that no meaningful review is possible when we are reduced to guessing whether the Commission erred in its application of the law. I respectfully dissent. Neal, J., joins in this dissent.