Court Opinion

ID: 9565565
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:23:49.113882+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:45.413271
License: Public Domain

BISTLINE, Justice,
dissenting.
John Nycum began his employment with Triangle Dairy Company in February of 1980 as a route delivery man. In the summer of 1980 the claimant developed pain, swelling and tenderness in various fingers of his hands as the result of lifting wire milk cartons, each weighing approximately 50 to 60 pounds. He reported this discomfort to his employer. His condition worsened in December of 1980 due to holiday increased work activities. On December 30, 1980, Mr. Nycum was diagnosed as having acute flexor tenosynovitis, related to his work. Mr. Nycum worked intermittently until January 23, 1981, when he ceased altogether due to the pain and stiffness in his fingers.
Mr. Nycum had previously suffered a similar hand condition in 1978 which was surgically treated by Dr. Delbert Pletcher, orthopedic surgeon from Sun Valley, Idaho. Dr. Pletcher testified that the 1978 hand disorder was cured by the surgery conducted at that time and was not related to the 1980 problem.
After Mr. Nycum ceased work his employer filed a notice of injury and claim for benefits. To aid in the diagnosis of his problem, Mr. Nycum was seen by several doctors, including an orthopedic surgeon, general practitioner, opthomologist, internist, and a specialist in rheumatoidology. The doctors disagreed as to the' underlying cause of the condition. Dr. Dega, a rheumatoidologist, and Dr. Burton, a neurolo*864gist, testified that the underlying cause of Mr. Nycum’s flexor tenosynovitis was his diabetes mellitus. Both of these physicians thought that Mr. Nycum did not have good control of his diabetes as indicated by his insulin levels. Dr. Pletcher, who was Mr. Nycum’s treating physician, testified that the hand condition was work-related and that according to his information, Mr. Nycum had good control of his diabetes. Dr. Frost, an opthomologist, and Dr. Foss, an internist, also testified that according to their test results Mr. Nycum had good control of his diabetes.
The surety for Triangle Dairy denied Mr. Nycum’s claim for benefits on the ground that the flexor tenosynovitis was not work-related, but rather was caused by his diabetes. Mr. Nycum appealed and a hearing was conducted by Commissioner Will S. Defenbach, who determined that the claimant’s flexor tenosynovitis was not contracted and incurred during the course of his employment with Triangle Diary Company. The Commission adopted his findings of fact, conclusions of law and order in full, and denied any compensation. The claimant appealed arguing that the Commission erred in its evaluation of the medical testimony. This argument is not persuasive in light of the substantial, albeit conflicting, testimony regarding the underlying cause of claimant’s condition. However, the majority-is in error in failing to properly address the real issue in this case: whether the claimant’s work activities aggravated and inflamed his underlying condition.
I.
Commissioner Defenbach’s findings provide a review of the testimony of the physicians:
The testimony of Drs. Pica and Dega are in direct conflict as to the cause of the claimant's flexor tenosynovitis. Dr. Pica testified that the claimant’s flexor tenosynovitis was the result of repetitive trauma and there was no connection whatsoever between the claimant’s diabetes and his flexor tenosynovitis.
Dr. Dega, on the other hand, testified that the claimant’s flexor tenosynovitis was causally related to his diabetes and not to his employment. The Commissioner is persuaded that, in this case, Dr. Dega’s opinion and the underlying authority and reasoning for such opinion, is more persuasive and is entitled to greater weight than the opinion rendered by Dr. Pica.
The Commissioner gives greater weight to the testimony of Dr. Dega and finds that the claimant’s flexor tenosynovitis is causally related to his diabetes and is not related to his employment with the Triangle Dairy Company. Finding of Fact IX, R., Vol. 3, p. 24 (emphasis added).
From this the Commissioner concluded that the claimant had failed to meet his burden of proof.
Because the finding that the flexor tenosynovitis was caused by his diabetes mellitus is supported by substantial and competent evidence does not mean that the claimant is precluded from an award of benefits. In Woodbury v. Arata Fruit Co., 64 Idaho 227, 130 P.2d 870 (1942)1 this Court ruled, as it had been doing, that a pre-existing disease or infirmity of the employee does not disqualify a claim under the arising-out-of-employment requirement if the employment aggravated, accelerated, or combined with the disease or infirmity to produce the death or disability for which compensation is sought. In Woodbury, the claimant was struck by a falling facer pan at work which aggravated and accelerated her cancerous condition. The Court stated:
The rule is well established in this jurisdiction that injury, resulting partly from accident and partly from a pre-existing disease, is compensable if the accident aggravated or accelerated the ultimate result; and it is immaterial that the claimant would, even if the accident had not occurred, become totally disabled by reason of the disease. (Young v. Herrington, 61 Ida. 183, 99 Pac. (2d) 441; *865Hanson v. Independent School Dist. 11-J, 50 Ida. 81, 294 Pac. 513; Beaver v. Morrison Knudsen Co., 55 Ida. 275, 41 Pac. (2d) 605, 97 A.L.R. 1399; In re Larson, 48 Ida. 136, 279 Pac. 1087; Strouse v. Hercules Min. Co., 51 Ida. 7, 1 Pac. (2d) 203; Scarborough v. Beardmore, 52 Ida. 180, 12 Pac. (2d) 771.) Woodbury, supra, at 239, 130 P.2d at 875.
Larson has summarized this doctrine as follows: “This is sometimes expressed by saying that the employer takes the employee as he finds him.” Larson, Workmen’s Compensation Law § 12.21 (1985). Until today, I had thought that to have long been the rule in Idaho.
More recently we addressed a similar claim for benefits in Wynn v. J.R. Simplot Co., 105 Idaho 102, 666 P.2d 629 (1983) wherein the claimant was injured while operating a front-end loader. The employer argued that there the employee’s condition was not an “accident,” i.e., a distinct mishap or event. This Court declined to accept that argument noting that the operation of the front-end loader subjected the claimant to almost continual and sudden jarring and shaking (repetitive trauma).
After disposing of the “accident” question in Wynn, this Court went on to discuss the question of whether the claimant’s weak spine predisposed him to the injury and should preclude him from an award under the worker’s compensation laws. This Court summarily rejected that argument:
Although respondent Simplot invites the Court to engage in a semantic distinction analysis of whether an injury which results from repeated trauma falls within the category of occupational disease as distinguished from the category of industrial accident or neither, we decline the invitation. It is enough to note that claimant here, as indicated by the medical evidence, suffered his injury at a particular time, at a particular place, while engaged in his normal and ordinary work for his employer. The fact that Wynn’s spine may have been weak and predisposed him to a ruptured disc does not prevent an award since our compensation law does not limit awards to workmen who, prior to injury, were in sound condition and perfect health. Rather, an employer takes an employee as he finds him. [Long string of cases cited, beginning with Miller v. Bingham County, 79 Idaho 87, 310 P.2d 1089 (1957).] Wynn, supra, at 104, 666 P.2d at 631.
Those of the trial bar who follow our worker’s compensation cases will note that the author of today’s opinion for the Court was the sole dissenter in Wynn v. Simplot, 105 Idaho 102, 666 P.2d 629 (1983), where, in concluding, he accused the majority of “substituting its own judgment for that of the commission.” His comprehensive dissent paid no mind to the backbone of the majority decision, which was that “an employer takes an employee as he finds him.” The employee in Wynn was afflicted by a bad back — a back which Justice Bakes observed got that way because of punishment inflicted by claimant’s extremely strenuous lifestyle. The employee in this case, however, was afflicted with diabetes — induced flexor tenosynovitis, a disease which he did not encourage by his lifestyle.' Strangely, Wynn goes unmentioned in Justice Bakes’ opinion. What can be made of this by the trial bar, I do not know, other than that as often as a proposed opinion obtains two more votes, three does prevail. With that mathematical certainty one cannot quarrel, but whether this Court is providing any stability in this area of the law, it is difficult to ascertain. We could do so were we to blindly follow the teaching of Justice Bakes, as reviewed in Wynn, and now today, where he insists that we absolutely must not review the record in light of Mr. Nycum’s belated contention that the underlying disease was aggravated sufficiently by his employment to render him disabled. What to make of that is not readily known, because his opinion then proceeds to declare that there was no aggravating accident which triggered the ensuing disability, citing a 1939 case which is notably among the missing on a rereading of our Wynn *866opinion, and the string of citations at page 104 of 102 Idaho, 666 P.2d at 631. That 1939 case, Sonson v. Arbogast, 60 Idaho 582, 94 P.2d 672 (1939), has a singular remarkability. In all of the years since 1939, before today’s use of it in the majority opinion, it has only been cited one time. In 1970 in Manning v. Potlatch Forests, Inc., 93 Idaho 855, 477 P.2d 97, it was given slight mention as additional authority for the proposition that a claimant must be able “to show any instant [sic, “instance”] or particular episode in time when he was aware of a mishap or other causative occurrence____” 93 Idaho at 857, 477 P.2d at 99. Keeping that statement in the back of the mind, Sonson deserves but a second’s attention. That worker’s claim was based upon streptococcic pneumonia, a not unimportant fact which would have been disclosed to the average reader had the author not deleted the sentence which preceded the passage as now displayed in the Court’s opinion, and which sentence introduced the entire paragraph. No one will take quarrel with that holding. Equally true, no one would take exception had the above statement from Manning been included in the Wynn string citation of authority. In Manning, the Court observed what it called the failure to trace a deterioration to any particular traumatic episode. “Compare Dawson v. Hartwik, 91 Idaho 561, 428 P.2d 480 (1967), where a back injury was held ‘accidental’ and compensable because its cause could be located as to time and place with sufficient certainty.” 93 Idaho at 857, n. 5, 477 P.2d at 99, n. 5 (emphasis added). That language dovetails very nicely with the language in the opinion for the Court in Wynn, where we cited Dawson, going on to say of it that there “this Court affirmed a Commission award to a claimant whose injuries in part resulted from stooping to lift a case of empty bottles while he was working in his usual occupation as a bartender.” 102 Idaho at 105, 666 P.2d at 632. Enough has been laid out to rest a rather overwhelming case against the majority in Mr. Nycum’s case — a majority which cannot be accused of being swayed by the very first section of the Workmen’s Compensation Law, or accused of having as much concern in obtaining justice for the worker as it obviously has for technical court rules which ordinarily might be said to apply in civil actions — certainly not at all the same as informal proceedings under the Workmen’s Compensation law.
When one makes an independent audit of the above discussed authority found in Justice Bakes’ opinion and adds it to the authority from Wynn, one is brought to the inevitable conclusion that Justice Huntley is correct; the Court this day should be directing the Commission to make the small but deserved award which rightfully belongs to Mr. Nycum.

. Woodbury was relied upon in Wynn, infra.