Court Opinion

ID: 9692777
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 16:05:23.457052+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:19:36.833155
License: Public Domain

COYNE, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. Based on the conclusion that the findings were supported by substantial evidence, the Workers’ Compensation Court of Appeals, by a majority decision, affirmed the compensation judge’s determination that the employee had failed to prove by a reasonable preponderance of the evidence that she is permanently and totally disabled. The medical testimony was conflicting, as was the testimony of vocational counselors. The employee’s treating physician was of the opinion that she had sustained a 20 percent permanent partial disability df the back, and he said that orthopedieally she was capable of light work within restrictions. A psychiatrist, a *54psychologist and rehabilitation counselor, and a vocational counselor differed about her capability for sustained gainful employment. The film of employee’s berry picking showed employee engaged in activities consistent with the restrictions imposed by her physician and far exceeding her description of her physical ability.
That we might well have reached a different conclusion had we been triers of fact is irrelevant. An experienced compensation judge determined that the employee was not permanently and totally disabled and that she was capable of working but had not diligently sought work within her capabilities. The Workers’ Compensation Court of Appeals affirmed that determination. We have said that this court must view the facts in the light most favorable to the findings and will disturb them only if they are manifestly contrary to the evidence or that it is clear reasonable minds would adopt a contrary conclusion. E.g., Hengemuhle v. Long Prairie Jaycees, 358 N.W.2d 54 (Minn.1984). It seems to me that on the record before us reasonable minds could come to different conclusions and that, therefore, we should not substitute our findings for those of the compensation judge and the Workers’ Compensation Court of Appeals.
I would affirm.