U. Auto Stores v. Workmen's Comp. App. Bd.

• Decision Date: 26 March 1971
• Citation: 4 Cal.3d 469,93 Cal.Rptr. 575,482 P.2d 199
• Court: California Supreme Court
• Parties: , 482 P.2d 199 U.S. AUTO STORES et al., Petitioners, v. WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION APPEALS BOARD and Herman Frederick Brenner, Respondents. L.A. 29743.

Page 575

93 Cal.Rptr. 575

4 Cal.3d 469, 482 P.2d 199

U.S. AUTO STORES et al., Petitioners, v. WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION APPEALS BOARD and Herman Frederick Brenner, Respondents.

L.A. 29743.

Supreme Court of California In Bank.

March 26, 1971.

Weingand, Kending & Stockwell, Los Angeles, and Donald James Drost for petitioners.

Everett A. Corten, Rupert A. Pedrin, San Francisco, Nathan Mudge, Sheldon M. Ziff, Gabriel L. Sipos and Byron R. Bentley, Los Angeles, for respondents.

PETERS, Justice.

Petitioners U.S. Auto Stores and American Hardware Mutual Insurance Company claim that the award of permanent disability of the Workmen's Compensation Appeals Board is not supported by substantial evidence and that the award is not supported by the findings. We have concluded that the board's decision is supported by substantial evidence and that the findings issue was not raised before the board and was therefore waived.

Herman Frederick Brenner, a 19-year-old auto parts salesman, sustained multiple injuries including a skull fracture with brain damage when he was struck by a truck in the course of his employment. He also suffered internal injuries requiring ten major abdominal surgeries during the five-year post-injury period.

At the permanent disability hearings, voluminous medical records were received in evidence. Dr. Steward, who performed the surgeries, stated in his final report of June 11, 1968, that Brenner 'is enjoying good health * * * and his abdomen seems to be in fine condition.' He further stated that the applicant had 'no difficulty from his mild diabetes.'

Dr. Wood, in his report of September 25, 1968, described the following symptoms: pyrosis (heart burn), bowel dysfunction, increased irritability and emotional liability, marked weakness and easy fatigability, amosmia (loss of sense of smell) and mild diabetes mellitus. Dr. Wood estimated applicant's permanent disability 'at no greater than 15 to 20% At the present time * * *.' ¹

Applicant submitted two medical reports, one by Dr. Fitzgibbon, a neurologist, prepared in July of 1965, and one by Dr. Kritzer, an internist, dated August 24, 1968. Dr. Fitzgibbon described applicant as suffering from 'complete and permanent' anosmia, 'a pattern of reacting to change in the contents of the stomach' which, the doctor said, may or may not get better, and finally, and, in the doctor's words, 'by far the most important,' some degree of general brain damage which made him 'much more impatient, more irritable, more querulous, and more unreasonable than he used to be, * * *' Dr. Fitzgibbon thought that this latter symptom might improve if Brenner developed 'habits and attitudes which will help him control his tendency to easy and excessive reaction to emotional situations.'

Dr. Kritzer's report included the following observations: Applicant's greatest problem is intense anxiety and he is 'emotionally tremendously unstable'; he has diabetes which 'was materially contributed to by the fact that part of his pancreas had to be destroyed in order to perform some of the operations in his abdomen'; an inability to smell; 'a great deal' of indigestion and heartburn; 'diarrheic bowel movement which at times causes him to soil his pants'; recurrent low backaches; difficulty in taking deep breaths; lack of physical stamina; and a weight-lifting limitation of 10 to 15 pounds. Dr. Kritzer stated he could not think of a job Brenner could take 'except possibly in a semi-sedentary or a sedentary occupation where he is not emotionally abraded by contact with either superiors or the public.' After stating that Brenner's diabetes could lead to severe disabling complications in the future and that he is a candidate for abdominal troubles of the obstructive type, Dr. Kritzer concluded, 'The best I can give you with all the aforementioned entities (is) that his disability for the overall labor market is probably somewhere around 75--80% At the present time and will probably remain so for the future.'

Applicant testified that he has lost his sense of taste and smell, is a borderline diabetic and must watch his diet, has general weakness and fatigue, especially weakness in his back which is noticeable when he lifts (he lifts up to 40 pounds), headaches at least once a week, pain in his upper abdomen and around his surgical scars, tightness of the throat and upper chest when he eats, shortness of breach after meals, three or four explosive bowel movements every day such that he must be near a toilet, and indigestion so that he can only eat half a normal size meal (he has been instructed by Dr. Wood to eat six small meals a day). He has periodic episodes of nausea and vomiting. He feels that he can't deal with the public because of the stress and strain involved, and he goes out rather infrequently because public contact and noise make him nervous.

Applicant's wife testified to his tightness in the chest, backaches, weak knee, headaches, restricted diet and, finally, to his aversion to being around groups of people, although he had enjoyed such contacts before his injury.

The referee requested a recommended rating from the Permanent Disability Rating Bureau based on the following instructions: 'By reason of multiple injuries on May 3, 1963 requiring 9 or 10 surgical procedures applicant has incurred the following residuals: Borderline diabetic condition, loss of the sense of smell and impairment of the sense of taste to the four primaries, infrequent minor headaches, recurrent low backache and aching of the right knee, marked anxiety state, disturbance of the bowel function resulting in explosive bowel movements about four times a day, generalized weakness and easy fatigability. ( ) The above-described factors result in a 77 1/2% Reduction in his ability to compete in the open labor market.'

The rating expert recommended a 77 1/2 percent rating. He testified that because the referee specified the disability in his instructions, he did not make his own independent judgment as to the extent of disability nor did he adjust the rating for age or occupation. He further testified that had the referee not specified that the disability was 77 1/2 percent, the remaining rating instructions were not specific enough for him to formulate an independent rating. ² To the question whether he could formulate a rating based on the referee's rating instruction without the 77 1/2 percent instruction, he replied, 'I could read 100 per cent in that * * * I assume, I may be wrong, marked anxiety state would be the same as pronounced and it probably is.' ³

In his opinion, the referee stated that the loss of smell and taste, the headaches, backache, and pain in the knee were minor factors of disability. Of greater importance, he said, were the diabetes and residuals from the surgeries which accounted for applicant's weakness and fatigability and would limit him to moderate-to-light work considered alone. Applicant's anxiety state would preclude him from public contact and limit his contact with co-employees. The bowel disturbance, while it did not amount to incontinence, made it necessary that applicant work near a men's room and be able to leave his work suddenly.

The referee further stated that the medical report of Dr. Kritzer and the applicant's testimony 'is the paramount evidence which warrants the 77 1/2% Recommended rating.' He concluded that '(t)he composite picture of permanent disability could be approached by evaluating the permanent disability on a fragmentary basis (which could easily result in a permanent disability rating equal to or in excess of the recommended 77 1/2%), but the better approach in this type case is to recognize that the composite permanent disability is such a significant impairment of this man's ability to compete on the open labor market that he should be entitled to a 77 1/2% Rating, which is substantially in accord with Dr. Kritzer's recommendation.' ⁴

Petitioners sought reconsideration by the board on the grounds that (1) the evidence did not justify the findings of fact in that there was no competent evidence to support a rating of 77 1/2 percent and that the medical report of Dr. Morton Kritzer should be stricken because it was unreliable and contained erroneous information; and (2) that by 'disregarding' the other medical evidence and by 'delegating his authority to decide extent of labor market disability' to Dr. Kritzer, the referee so abused his discretion that he acted without and in excess of his powers.

In his report on reconsideration, the referee not only discussed and answered the two points raised in the petition, but also further elaborated upon his 'composite disability' approach to rating although he noted that petitioners had failed to raise the question in their petition. The board denied reconsideration for the reasons stated in the referee's report on reconsideration.

Petitioners first contend that the board's decision is not supported by substantial evidence. The decision is supported by substantial evidence if the degree of disability found by the referee is within the Range of evidence in the record. It is not necessary that there be evidence of the exact degree of disability. (Liberty Mut. Ins. Co. v. Industrial Acc. Com. (1948) 33 Cal.2d 89, 93, 199 P.2d 302.)

The 77 1/2 percent rating was well within the range of total disability ratings which the evidence could reasonably support. The referee pointed out that had he rated each separate disability factor, the total rating could easily have equaled or exceeded 77 1/2 percent. The rating expert testified that the general description of the factors of disability given him by the referee could add up to a 100 percent rating.

Fidelity &...