Dunton v. Eastern Fine Paper Co.

• Decision Date: 08 December 1980
• Citation: 423 A.2d 512
• Parties: Rodney L. DUNTON v. EASTERN FINE PAPER COMPANY et al.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

Page 512

423 A.2d 512

Rodney L. DUNTON v. EASTERN FINE PAPER COMPANY et al.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

Argued Sept. 17, 1980.

Decided Dec. 8, 1980.

Mitchell & Stearns, John Woodcock, Jr., Kevin M. Cuddy (orally), Bangor, for plaintiff.

Rudman, Winchell, Carter & Buckley, William S. Wilson, Jr. (orally), Michael P. Friedman, Bangor, Norman & Hanson, Robert F. Hanson, Stephen Hessert (orally), Portland, for City of Brewer.

Before WERNICK, GODFREY, NICHOLS, GLASSMAN and ROBERTS, JJ., and DUFRESNE, A. R. J.

ROBERTS, Justice.

On appeal from a pro forma judgment affirming a decision of the Workers' Compensation Commission, Eastern Fine Paper Company raises issues of notice and late filing as well as insufficiency of the evidence. The Commission found that the employee, Rodney L. Dunton, was totally disabled as the combined result of a compensable injury to his back received in December, 1972, while he was employed by Eastern and a second compensable injury received in June, 1976, while he was employed by the City of Brewer. The Commissioner was unable to determine the relative contribution of each injury and therefore ordered Eastern and the City each to pay one-half of Dunton's total incapacity. We affirm the pro forma judgment.

The December, 1972, accident at Eastern occurred when Dunton slipped and fell on a wet floor while running away from an exploding machine. He did not miss any work on account of this fall. Although he experienced intermittent back pain beginning early in 1973, he testified that he did not connect his back problems with the fall at work, and he did not mention the fall to the various doctors he consulted. The second accident occurred in June, 1976, after Dunton had voluntarily left his employment at Eastern and gone to work as a waste water treatment plant operator for the City. While stepping down from a truck onto a wet cement platform, he slipped and fell on his back and leg. Dunton testified that his back pain continued after this fall and gradually became worse. In April, 1977, he consulted Dr. Ballesteros, a neurological surgeon, and underwent surgery for removal of a herniated disc in his back.

In May, 1977, Dunton filed petitions for award of compensation against both employers. Because of the expiration of the term of the Commissioner before whom the hearings were held, the parties agreed that the case could be decided by another commissioner on the hearing transcripts.

Eastern argued that Dunton's claim based on the 1972 accident was barred by his failure to comply with the 30-day notice requirement of 39 M.R.S.A. § 63 and the two-year filing limit of 39 M.R.S.A. § 95. The Commission found that the failure to give notice was excused by the employer's actual knowledge of the accident, 39 M.R.S.A. § 64, and that the late filing was excused because it resulted from a mistake of fact as to the cause and nature of the injury, 39 M.R.S.A. § 95. On appeal, Eastern contends that these findings are erroneous and also that the evidence does not support a finding of causal connection between the 1972 accident and Dunton's ultimate incapacity.

I.

Before reaching the merits of the appeal we examine the proper standard for reviewing the Commissioner's findings in order to eliminate a possible source of confusion. This court's jurisdiction to review Workers' Compensation Commission orders, via appeals from pro forma Superior Court judgments, is conferred by 39 M.R.S.A. § 103. Section 103 provides, in part:

(T)here shall be no appeal (from the pro forma decree) upon questions of fact found by (the) commission ....

Upon any appeal (from the pro forma decree), ... the law court may, after consideration, reverse or modify any decree ... based upon an erroneous ruling or finding of law.

In addition, 39 M.R.S.A. § 99 provides in part that the Commissioner's "decision, in the absence of fraud, upon all questions of fact shall be final ...."

In the usual case, therefore, errors of law are subject to appellate review, but the Commissioner's findings of fact are conclusive if supported by competent evidence. E. g., Blackman v. Harris Baking Co., Me., 407 A.2d 21, 22 (1979). Eastern, however, invites us to disregard the Commissioner's findings and independently find the facts. Eastern argues that we are freed from the usual narrow scope of appellate review because the Commissioner made his decision entirely from a written record without hearing live witnesses. Instead, the appellant concludes, we are obligated to make new findings of fact uninfluenced by those of the Commission.

As support for its position, Eastern cites our opinion in Matthews v. R. T. Allen and Sons, Inc., Me., 266 A.2d 240 (1970). In Matthews we said that the usual constraints on judicial review of the Commission's fact finding do not apply where the findings were made solely from written evidence. We reasoned that because the credibility of live witnesses observed by the Commissioner was not involved, an appellate court was in as good a position as the Commissioner to review the record and determine the facts. 266 A.2d at 244. In Poole v. Statler Tissue Corp., Me., 400 A.2d 1067 (1979), we cited the Matthews concept where the Commissioner received both oral and written testimony with only the written evidence providing any support for his findings.

We now recognize that Matthews and Poole might be interpreted as a basis for us to disregard the usual limitation on our function as an appellate court. The holding in Matthews, however, was limited to a finding that the Commissioner had applied an erroneous legal concept of compensable injury. Similarly, in Poole we found no competent evidence to support a finding that the second injury was a separate intervening contributing cause of disability. We reject the concept that submission of written testimony, whether in the form of hearing transcripts, depositions or medical reports, changes the otherwise limited scope of review of findings of fact by the Commission. Two reasons lead us to affirm this position.

First, the conclusion that an appellate court is as capable as the fact finder below in reviewing written evidence is inappropriate where the fact finder is a commission established by the legislature especially to decide cases in a narrow field. In that situation, as this court has recognized, the commissioner "acquires an expertise and accumulates an experience in his limited, specialized field often more extensive than that of the judiciary." Jacobsky v. D'Alfonso & Sons, Inc., Me., 358 A.2d 511, 514 (1976). See also Wing v. Cornwall Industries, Me., 418 A.2d 177 (1980). This expertise extends beyond merely evaluating the credibility of live witnesses to include assessing evidence offered in written form.

In the present case we are asked to disregard the decision of an official whose full time responsibility is to evaluate workers' compensation claims and, as generalist judges, to interpret on our own the medical evidence offered by several doctors. We, as well as other courts, have recognized the wisdom of deferring to agency expertise in complex areas, e. g., Federal Power Commission v. Florida Power and Light Co., 404 U.S. 453, 463, 92 S.Ct. 637, 643, 30 L.Ed.2d 600 (1972); Biddeford and Saco Gas Company v. Portland Gas Light Company, Me., 233 A.2d 730, 736 (1967). Certainly we are justified in showing similar deference here.

The cases cited in Matthews in support of the expanded scope of review did not involve the same consideration of the Commission's expertise as we encounter here. See Orvis v. Higgins, 180 F.2d 537, 539 (2d Cir. 1950) (reciprocal trusts; inferences drawn from undisputed facts); In re Will of Edwards, 161 Me. 141, 149, 210 A.2d 17, 22 (1965) (interpretation of a will on agreed statement of facts). In those situations, the court may have concluded that a trial judge without specialized expertise is no more capable of evaluating written evidence than an appellate court. In fact, one of the cases cited as support in Matthews made this same distinction between findings by an administrative agency and by a trial judge, specifically excluding findings by administrative agencies from the broadened scope of review. See Orvis v. Higgins, 180 F.2d at 539.

Subsequent cases citing Matthews and Poole similarly have not concerned the issue of agency expertise, involving instead either review of trial judges or referees rather than specialized agencies, e. g., Brengelmann v. Land Resources of New England and Canada, Inc., Me., 380 A.2d 213 (1977); Northeast Investment Co. v. Leisure Living Communities, Inc., Me., 351 A.2d 845 (1976), or factual errors so glaring they should be labelled errors of law, Beaulieu v. Francis Bernard, Inc., Me., 393 A.2d 163, 166 (1978) ("The undisputed facts in the record support only one conclusion."). We have also shown our unwillingness to expand this concept from the usual narrow scope of review to agencies other than the Workers' Compensation Commission. See In re Lefebvre, Me., 343 A.2d 204 (1975) (Public Utilities Commission); State Board of Education v. Coombs, Me., 308 A.2d 582 (1973) (State Employees Appeals Board). Our research discloses no state allowing the appellate court independently to review written evidence in workers' compensation cases. See Perry v. Industrial Commission, 112 Ariz. 397, 542 P.2d 1096 (1975) (rejecting argument that the court can separately evaluate written medical evidence).

Second, and more importantly, even if we should conclude that we are as capable as the commissioner to find facts from a written record, we should not do so. Rather, an appreciation of the proper role of an appellate court suggests that we defer to the commission's findings. That the issue of credibility is cited as a factor does not mean that the evaluation of credibility is the only justification for finality of fact finding. Suggestions to the contrary in appellate opinions sometimes disguise a holding...