Court Opinion

ID: 9629171
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 09:38:33.074897+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:07:16.476096
License: Public Domain

Fontron, J.,
concurring: I agree with the court’s disposition of this case and should like expressly to say that in my judgment the record contains no evidence to support paragraphs seven, eight and thirteen of the trial court’s findings. Nowhere in his testimony do I *780find any denial by claimant that he is totally disabled, as the court found in finding seven, or any admission on his part that he is not totally disabled, as set forth in finding thirteen.
The claimant’s testimony was this: that he could identify somebody ten or twelve feet away and, in response to the question “Are you able to perform any work at the present time,” he responded “No sir.” This testimony certainly does not rise to the eminence of a denial of total disability, or of an admission of less than total disability.
Neither am I able to find anything in the record, which is scanty to say the least, to justify findings seven and eight as they relate to the doctor’s testimony. Dr. Hill testified, according to the respondents’ own narration, that “claimant’s visual acuity is not adequate for many things; however, he is able to move about adequately and to read with a magnifying glass.” In my judgment this is no indication on the part of Dr. Hill that claimant can do some type of work, as the court said in finding eight, or that Dr. Hill confirmed any supposed denial of total disability by the claimant, as finding seven suggests.
In all fairness, I think it must be said that any man who can identify people at distances of but ten or twelve feet, and who requires a magnifying glass to read, would be wholly unable to obtain and to retain work of a character that claimant was performing before his injury, unless there was specific evidence to the contrary. There is no such evidence in this record.