Bodish v. Fischer, Inc.

• Decision Date: 09 March 1965
• Docket Number: No. 51613,51613
• Citation: 257 Iowa 516,133 N.W.2d 867
• Parties: Paul BODISH, Claimant, Appellant, v. FISCHER, INC., Employer, and Bituminous Casualty Corporation, Insurance Carrler, Appellees.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 867

133 N.W.2d 867

257 Iowa 516

Paul BODISH, Claimant, Appellant, v. FISCHER, INC., Employer, and Bituminous Casualty Corporation, Insurance Carrler, Appellees.

No. 51613.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

March 9, 1965.

Klauer, Stapleton & Ernst, Dubuque, for appellant.

Betty, Neuman, Heninger & McMahon, Daveport, for appellees.

LARSON, Justice.

Claimant-employee appeals from a judgment of the district court affirming the industrial commissioner's denial of benefits claimed under Chapters 85 and 85A, Code 1958, I.C.A., as a result of injury or disease sustained in 1959 while he was employed as an operating engineer in defendant's cold storage plant at Dubuque, Iowa.

This appeal presents the same two questions propounded to the district court, i. e., was there a fact dispute on the causation, and was there sufficient competent evidence to sustain the commissioner's finding thereon? See Sections 86.29 and 86.30, Code, 1958, now 1962. The trial court answered both questions in the affirmative, and we must agree.

I. The above-mentioned provisions of the Code have been repeatedly construed as making the commissioner's findings of fact conclusive on appeal where the evidence is in dispute or where reasonable minds may differ on the inferences fairly to be drawn from the disclosed facts. In other words, if the evidence presents a question which should be submitted to a jury, if trial were to a jury, then the court is bound by the commissioner's findings. Hemker v. Drobney, 253 Iowa 421, 424, 425, 112 N.W.2d 672, 673, 674, and citations; Wagner v. Otis Radio & Electric Co., 254 Iowa 990, 993, 119 N.W.2d 751, 752; Daggett v. Nebraska-Eastern Express, Inc., 252 Iowa 341, 347, 107 N.W.2d 751, 752; Daggett v. Nebraska-Eastern where the facts are not in dispute and different inferences could not reasonably be drawn therefrom, it becomes a question of law and the court is not bound by the commissioner's findings or conclusions. Pribyl v. Standard Elec. Co., 246 Iowa 333, 67 N.W.2d 438; Elliott v. Wilkinson, 248 Iowa 667, 670, 81 N.W.2d 925, 927, and cases cited.

Since this appeal involves a review of the evidence heard by the commissioner, one or two other well established general rules should be first noted. It is the commissioner, not the court, who weighs the evidence and his findings will be broadly and liberally construed and to uphold, rather than defeat, his decision. Hemker v. Drobney, supra; Wagner v. Otis Radio and Electric Co., supra; Necks v. Davenport Produce Co., 254 Iowa 130, 135, 115 N.W.2d 812, 815, and citations; 100 C.J.S. Workmen's Compensation § 757, page 1145, § 763(2), pages 1175-1177.

The commissioner being the fact-finder, the rule announced in Staley v. Fazel Bros. Co., 247 Iowa 644, 647, 75 N.W.2d 253, 255, would be applicable. We said therein that the findings are to be broadly and liberally construed, rather than narrowly or technically. 'In case of doubt or ambiguity they will be construed to uphold, rather than to defeat, the judgment.'

Claimant, of course, had the burden of showing by a preponderance of the evidence before the commissioner that he suffered the claimed injury or disease as a result of his contact with spilled ammonia while working at defendant's plant, and our question is not whether there is sufficient evidence to warrant a decision the commissioner did not make, but whether there is sufficient evidence to warrant the decision he did make. Olson v. Goodyear Service Stores, 255 Iowa 1112, 125 N.W.2d 251, 253, and citations; Bocian v. Armour & Co., 244 Iowa 304, 306, 56 N.W.2d 900, 901, 902, and citations; Hemker v. Drobney, supra. However, in determining the correctness of the commissioner's decision we are required to consider the evidence in the light most favorable to claimant. Volk v. International Harvester Co., 252 Iowa 298, 301, 106 N.W.2d 649. Therefore, it becomes necessary for us to examine the testimony to see for ourselves if there is sufficient competent evidence to support the commissioner's decision.

II. Appellant contends the evidence as to causation is not in conflict, that the testimony of the medical experts and the fair inferences to be drawn therefrom establish as a matter of law the ultimate fact that his skin condition was caused by contact with escaping ammonia at defendant's plant on the afternoon of December 5, 1959. We have frequently pointed out that in the absence of an admission by his adversary it is not aften a party who has the burden on an issue establishes his claim as a matter of law. Staley v. Fazel Bros. Co., supra, 247 Iowa 644, 649, 75 N.W.2d 253; Ruble v. Carr, 244 Iowa 990, 993, 59 N.W.2d 228, 230, and citations. Nevertheless, appellant contends he established causality by the positive testimony of Dr. Radcliffe and thus placed the burden upon appellees to establish a conflict in the medical testimony on causality, that no conflict appears, because the fair inferences of appellees' expert's testimony supports the causation opinion of Dr. Radcliffe. We must admit this was an ingenious argument, but obviously it did not persuade the commissioner or the district court and it fails to persuade us. The claimant's burden does not shift, the commission was not compelled to accept the opinion of this medical expert, and the fair inferences to be drawn from all the medical testimony, the histories related by claimant to them, and other evidence surrounding appellant's claimed injury, may well support a finding that his skin condition arose independent of the industrial contact with ammonia.

III. The material evidence introduced, with the exception of that surrounding the opinions expressed by the medical experts, is somewhat in dispute. Claimant, age 50, was on duty at defendant's cold storage plant on the afternoon of December 5, 1959, when a plug in a storage tank sprung a leak and allowed anhydrous ammonia to drip or spill onto the floor, where it vaporized into a wet fog. Claimant said he tried to stop the leak, but was overcome by the fumes and left the area in distress. He called Mr. Meyer, the company vicepresident, who came to the plant and fixed the leak after considerable liquid ammonia had escaped. Appellant furnished him very little help and said it was due to a defective gas mask, although it was later used by a cleanup man without complaint. Nevertheless, claimant said his contact with the liquid and gas had so distressed him that he became ill and his skin was burned and irritated. He worked the rest of that day and the next, but on the second day, his day off, he consulted and gave a history of this exposure to the company doctor, Dr. Pfohl. Dr. Pfohl treated him until December 10th and then referred claimant to Dr. Barton, a skin specialist in Dubuque. Dr. Barton diagnosed the condition as eczematoid dermatitis and prescribed steroid drugs and soothing baths. When claimant obtained little relief, Dr. Barton referred him to Dr. Nomland, a specialist at the State University Hospitals in Iowa City, who after a superficial examination and an examination of the referral letter, advised claimant the condition was not industrially connected and sent him home. In the meantime Dr. Pfohl had continued to treat claimant and, after claimant lost his job at the plant September 22, 1960, sent him to Dr. Radcliffe, a skin specialist at the State University of Iowa, as a state patient. Dr. Barton joined in this referral. Dr. Radcliffe took over after October, 1960, and concluded the patient had generalized exfoliative dermatitis triggered off by exposure to ammonia at defendant's plant, that it made him more receptive to contacting pneumonia, which claimant had in April, 1961, and prescribed steroid drugs which eventually stabilized the affliction but did not cure it. It appears the history claimant gave each doctor was not the same, but Dr. Radcliffe testified his opinion of causation would be the same regardless of a previous history of dermatitis, i. e., that it occurred as a result of the December 5th contact with ammonia at defendant...