Crisp v. Brown's Tysons Corner Dodge, Inc.

• Decision Date: 18 February 1986
• Docket Number: No. 0241-85,0241-85
• Citation: 1 Va.App. 503,339 S.E.2d 916
• Parties: Jennifer Marie CRISP v. BROWN'S TYSONS CORNER DODGE, INC. Record
• Court: Virginia Court of Appeals

Page 916

339 S.E.2d 916

1 Va.App. 503

Jennifer Marie CRISP v. BROWN'S TYSONS CORNER DODGE, INC.

Record No. 0241-85.

Court of Appeals of Virginia.

Argued Oct. 11, 1985.

Decided Feb. 18, 1986.

Peter M. Sweeney (James E. Swiger, Ashcraft & Gerel, Alexandria, on brief), for appellant.

Susan A. Evans (Siciliano, Ellis, Sheridan, Dyer & Boccarosse, Fairfax, on brief), for appellee.

Present: DUFF, MOON and COLE, JJ.

MOON, Judge.

Jennifer Marie Crisp, appellant, seeks reversal of a decision of the Industrial Commission which denied her compensation. She asks that we rule as a matter of law that her disability between May 3, 1984, through June 4, 1984, was causally related to injuries suffered by an industrial accident on April 11, 1984. We decline to do so and affirm the Commission's decision because the evidence does not prove that her disability resulted from her injury on April 11, 1984.

The Industrial Commission's findings of fact must be sustained on appeal when supported by credible evidence. Lewis v. Lynchburg Foundry Co., 204 Va. 303, 305, 130 S.E.2d 429, 431 (1963); Code § 65.1-98. As the Supreme Court of Virginia stated in Caskey v. Dan River Mills, Inc., 225 Va. 405, 302 S.E.2d 507 (1983):

We do not retry the facts before the Commission nor do we review the weight, preponderance of the evidence, or the credibility of witnesses. If there is evidence or reasonable inference that can be drawn from the evidence to support the Commission's findings, they will not be disturbed by this Court on appeal, even though there is evidence in the record to support contrary findings of fact.

Id. at 411, 302 S.E.2d at 510-11. (citations omitted). We are, therefore, required to construe the evidence in the light most favorable to the prevailing party, the employer, Brown's Tysons Corner Dodge. See United Virginia Bank v. E.L.B. Tank Construction Co., 226 Va. 551, 553, 311 S.E.2d 773, 774 (1984).

On April 11, 1984, Jennifer Marie Crisp experienced back pain while lifting a box of machine parts. She did not report the incident to her employer at that time and continued to work until April 17, 1984, when she sought medical treatment from Dr. Stanford Lavine, an orthopedic surgeon. She told Dr. Lavine that she had low back pain "for the past two weeks." (emphasis added). Her description of the onset of pain two weeks earlier would place the origin of the pain eight days prior to the alleged injury date. She also told him that she was having right knee and low back pain which had worsened during the preceding two days. She gave him no history that indicated that she had injured her back on April 11, 1984. Also, on April 17, 1984, Crisp resigned from her employment with Brown's Tysons Corner Dodge and began working as a car cleaner for another automobile dealer. She worked for the second dealer until May 4, 1984, when she was taken to the Commonwealth Hospital emergency room and was admitted by Dr. Norman Marcus. Dr. Marcus' notes state that "[s]he was felt to have a recurrent soft tissue injury of the lumbar spine." There were also notes in the record raising the question of a possible herniated disc or degenerative disc disease. Crisp testified that she...