Court Opinion

ID: 9646694
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 13:08:21.52838+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:40.885297
License: Public Domain

Gilbert, C. J.,

dissenting:

I respectfully disagree with my brethren. I take no issue with their discussion of the facts, their conclusion that the trial judge was wrong, or that the Board of Trustees con*208sidered evidence dehors the record while rejecting, if not ignoring, substantial evidence that would have supported the Board’s ultimate conclusion.
The record discloses evidence from which the Board could have decided that the appellee’s "special disability” was not causally connected to the injury sustained. Moreover, the Board could have concluded that the appellee’s pattern of absenteeism strained credibility.
Admittedly, the Board journeyed outside the evidence and blatantly decided the case on what was not properly before it.
The "Medical Record Card” of the appellee shows that from August 12,1974 through September 20,1978, a period of four years and one month, the appellee reported sick on ten separate occasions. He lost a total of 20 days work. On October 18, 1978, he sustained an "arm injury” and lost three days work.
Appellee’s initial request for "Special Disability Retirement” was rejected, and he was so notified on March 12, 1979. Thereafter, appellee, with almost mathematical precision, reported sick 11 times during the period April 10,1979 through August 27, 1979. In the April 10, 1979 to June 12, 1979 time frame, all complaints were directed toward appellee’s "sore shoulder.” As a result of the "sore shoulder” he lost about two days work per week.
It is obvious that the majority believe, as do I, that the Board had before it evidence sufficient to reverse the medical board. Notwithstanding that evidence, the Board considered and based its decision on matters not before it. The Board was wrong for so doing, and the trial court should have so held and remanded the case to the Board in order for that administrative body to reconsider the case and decide it on the basis of the evidence before it. It seems to me that if the trial judge can be affirmed even though he has reached what they think to be the right decision, but for the wrong reason, that same privilege should be extended to the Board who, in my opinion, were right, but for the wrong reasons.
*209I would reverse and remand with instructions to the trial court to remand the case to the Board for reconsideration of the evidence that was properly before it.