Varied Enterprises, Inc. v. Sumner

• Decision Date: 22 August 1984
• Docket Number: No. 83-952,83-952
• Parties: VARIED ENTERPRISES, INC., d/b/a Private Carrier Personnel and Safeco Insurance Company of America, Appellants, v. Charles D. SUMNER and Robert Landess, Iowa Industrial Commissioner, Appellees.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 407

353 N.W.2d 407

VARIED ENTERPRISES, INC., d/b/a Private Carrier Personnel and Safeco Insurance Company of America, Appellants, v. Charles D. SUMNER and Robert Landess, Iowa Industrial Commissioner, Appellees.

No. 83-952.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Aug. 22, 1984.

Rehearing Denied Sept. 17, 1984.

R. Ronald Pogge of Hopkins & Huebner, Des Moines, for appellants.

David C. Shinkle and Anna I. Shinkle of Shinkle & Shinkle, Des Moines, for appellees.

Considered by REYNOLDSON, C.J., and UHLENHOPP, HARRIS, McGIVERIN, and CARTER, JJ.

CARTER, Justice.

This appeal involves the application of our decision in Sondag v. Ferris Hardware, 220 N.W.2d 903 (Iowa 1974), to a novel factual situation. The industrial commissioner and district court applied that decision in a manner which rendered claimant's work aggravated myocardial infarction compensable as a permanent total disability. The employer and insurance carrier challenge that determination in this court. We affirm the judgment of the district court.

The claimant, Charles D. Sumner, suffered an acute myocardial infarction while driving a truck as part of his employment with Varied Enterprises, Inc. d/b/a Private Carrier Personnel (hereinafter PCP). The dispute between the parties concerns the interrelationship between the disability which resulted from the infarction and Sumner's employment with PCP. Sumner had been employed by PCP as a team truck driver for less than thirty days on October 11, 1979. On that date, while driving a truck pursuant to his employment with PCP, he began to experience chest pains. He believed it was only indigestion and continued driving. Although the pain continued and to some extent increased, he continued driving for two and one-half hours before pulling off the traveled portion of the roadway at a truck stop.

After stopping, Sumner drank a bicarbonate of soda, whereupon the pain became much worse. He then asked his partner, who was accompanying him in a team driving capacity, to summon emergency assistance. The evidence indicates that soon after receiving medical assistance Sumner was diagnosed as having incurred an acute myocardial infarction. A permanent and total industrial disability resulted.

At the hearing before the industrial commissioner, conflicting expert testimony was presented concerning whether Sumner's continued driving after the onset of the infarction materially aggravated the impact thereof in terms of resulting industrial disability. The industrial commissioner accepted the views of Sumner's expert that the continued driving did materially aggravate the impact of the infarction and increased the resulting disability. This finding was upheld by the district court on judicial review.

On appeal, PCP and its insurance carrier raise three issues: (1) whether there is substantial evidence in the record as a whole to support the commissioner's findings; (2) whether the commissioner misapplied the legal principles established in Sondag in concluding that Sumner's disability was fully compensable; and (3) whether the commissioner erred in not apportioning Sumner's disability between that which would have resulted from the onset of the myocardial infarction in the absence of further aggravating activity and the increased disability caused by Sumner's driving after the onset of the infarction. We consider each of these issues separately.

I. Whether the Commissioner's Material Findings are Supported by Substantial Evidence.

Administrative findings of fact are binding on a reviewing court if they are supported by substantial evidence when the record is viewed as a whole. Second Injury Fund v. Mich. Coal Co., 274 N.W.2d 300, 303 (Iowa 1979); Iowa Code § 17A.19(8)(f) (1983). Evidence is substantial when a reasonable mind would accept it as adequate to reach a conclusion. City of Davenport v. Public Employees Relations Board, 264 N.W.2d 307, 311 (Iowa 1979). The possibility of drawing two inconsistent conclusions from the same body of evidence does not prevent an administrative agency's finding from being supported by substantial evidence. Id.

Within the context of the foregoing standard of review, PCP and its insurance carrier challenge the evidentiary support for two of the commissioner's findings of fact. These are: (1) the commissioner's finding that Sumner felt impelled to continue driving despite his physical discomfort because of his concern about the effect of lost time on his probationary employment status with PCP, and (2) the commissioner's finding that Sumner's actions in continuing to drive after the onset of the myocardial infarction materially aggravated the effect thereof in terms of industrial disability.

A. Findings on Sumner's Motive for Continuing to Drive. The employer and insurance carrier assert that there is not substantial evidence in the record to support the commissioner's finding that the reason Sumner felt impelled to continue driving after the onset of symptoms was the demands of his employment. This challenge appears to be tied to our reference in Sondag, 220 N.W.2d at 905, to the following observations expressed in 1A A. Larson, The Law of Workmen's Compensation section 38.64(c), at 7-145 (1972):

The most obvious relevance of this element [continuing exertion after symptoms] is in showing causal connection between the obligations of the employment and the final injury; for if the workman, for some reason, feels impelled to continue with his duties when, but for these duties, he could and would have gone somewhere to lie down at once, the causal contribution of the employment to the aggravation of the condition is clear.

The employer and insurance carrier urge that the evidence in the present case suggests that Sumner's only reason for continuing to drive was the fact that he did not realize that there was anything seriously wrong with him. From this premise they urge that there was no impelling reason attributable to the employment relationship which caused him to continue working in the face of a severe health deprivation.

Sumner urges, and we agree, that the evidence does support the commissioner's finding that he felt impelled to continue driving because of the rather shaky nature of his probationary status with his employer. This evidence is found in the testimony of Sumner's partner that he had expressed concern to Sumner about the latter's apparent declining ability to drive for extended periods without rest and its effect on his continued employment. Moreover, we view the example set forth in the Larson treatise as only having reference to one type of situation which strongly demonstrates a causal contribution to employment. It does not purport to establish an absolute requirement that a claimant be motivated to continue working in the face of a known health deprivation in order to produce a compensable situation.

B. Findings on Element of Causation....