Injury to Carpenter, Matter of

• Decision Date: 01 May 1987
• Docket Number: Nos. 87-37,87-38,s. 87-37
• Citation: 736 P.2d 311
• Parties: In the Matter of the INJURY TO Melvin D. CARPENTER, an Employee of Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph Company. (Two Cases) MOUNTAIN STATES TELEPHONE & TELEGRAPH COMPANY, Appellant (Employer-Defendant), v. Melvin D. CARPENTER, Appellee (Employee-Claimant). Melvin D. CARPENTER, Appellant (Employee-Claimant), v. MOUNTAIN STATES TELEPHONE & TELEGRAPH COMPANY, Appellee (Employer-Defendant).
• Court: Wyoming Supreme Court

Page 311

736 P.2d 311

In the Matter of the INJURY TO Melvin D. CARPENTER, an Employee of Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph Company. (Two Cases)

MOUNTAIN STATES TELEPHONE & TELEGRAPH COMPANY, Appellant (Employer-Defendant), v. Melvin D. CARPENTER, Appellee (Employee-Claimant).

Melvin D. CARPENTER, Appellant (Employee-Claimant), v. MOUNTAIN STATES TELEPHONE & TELEGRAPH COMPANY, Appellee (Employer-Defendant).

Nos. 87-37, 87-38.

Supreme Court of Wyoming.

May 1, 1987.

Richard J. Nardi of Ross & Ross, Cheyenne, for Melvin D. Carpenter.

John M. Walker and Paul J. Hickey of Rooney, Bagley, Hickey, Evans & Statkus, Cheyenne, for Mountain States Tel. & Tel. Co.

Before BROWN, C.J., and THOMAS, CARDINE, URBIGKIT and MACY, JJ.

MACY, Justice.

The district court awarded Melvin Carpenter 15% permanent partial disability benefits under the Wyoming Worker's Compensation Act. On appeal, the employer, Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph Company, objects that the award was not supported by the evidence, while Carpenter complains that the trial judge improperly relied exclusively upon medical evidence of his disability.

We affirm.

Carpenter was born with asthma (asymptomatic congenital reactive airway disease). He had worked as a laborer, carpenter, and mechanic. He is a trained mechanic and had been employed in that capacity by Mountain States for five years. The garage in which he worked accumulated gasoline and diesel fumes and exhaust, especially during the winter. Carpenter had been a moderate smoker for approximately ten years when, in the spring of 1984, he suffered from a respiratory infection which triggered his asthma symptoms. He then quit smoking and continued to work until June 1985, which was as long as he could tolerate the polluted atmosphere in the garage. Mountain States objected to his worker's compensation claim.

The trial judge found that Dr. Bindschadler's testimony was competent medical authority that the claim arose out of and in the scope of employment, that there was a direct causal connection between the working conditions and the disease, that the aggravation of the disease was a natural incident of the work, that the employment was a proximate cause of the aggravation of the disease, that the hazard which aggravated the disease was not one to which the employee was equally exposed outside work, and that the aggravation was incidental to the character of the business, as required by § 27-12-603(a), W.S.1977. The trial court did not decide that the work environment caused the infection which triggered the symptoms; rather, it found that, given Carpenter's nonwork-related symptomatic asthma, the work environment caused disability by aggravating the symptoms.

It is well established that the employer must take the employee as he finds him. Lindbloom v. Teton International, Wyo., 684 P.2d 1388 (1984); Associated Seed Growers, Inc. v. Scrogham, 52 Wyo. 232, 73 P.2d 300 (1937). Subsequent aggravation of a preexisting condition by employment is a compensable injury. Lindbloom v. Teton International, 684 P.2d at 1389-90; Jim's Water Service v. Eayrs, Wyo., 590 P.2d 1346 (1979). Whether the employment actually aggravated the condition is a question of fact for the trial court. Lindbloom v. Teton International, 694 P.2d at 1390; 1 Larson, Workmen's Compensation Law § 12.21 (1985). When reviewing factual determinations, this Court must determine whether sufficient evidence supports them. We look only to the evidence of the prevailing party, giving it every favorable inference, and leave out of consideration any evidence which conflicts with it. Abas v. State ex rel. Wyoming Worker's Compensation Division, Wyo., 701 P.2d 1153 (1985); State ex rel. Wyoming Worker's Compensation Division v. Colvin, Wyo., 681 P.2d...