Williams v. Brown's Sheet Metal

• Decision Date: 23 April 2003
• Docket Number: No. CA 02-428.,CA 02-428.
• Parties: Neil D. WILLIAMS v. BROWN'S SHEET METAL/CNA INSURANCE COMPANY.
• Court: Arkansas Court of Appeals

105 S.W.3d 382

Neil D. WILLIAMS v. BROWN'S SHEET METAL/CNA INSURANCE COMPANY.

No. CA 02-428.

Court of Appeals of Arkansas, Divisions I and II, En Banc.

April 23, 2003.

Dale Grady, Bryant, for appellant.

Laser Law Firm, P.A., by: Frank B. Newell, Little Rock.

ROBERT J. GLADWIN, Judge.

Appellant, Neil Williams, appeals from a decision by the Workers' Compensation Commission denying his claim for benefits. For reversal, appellant argues that the Commission's decision was not supported by substantial evidence. We affirm.

On December 25, 1998, appellant was working at Virco Manufacturing Company as an employee of Brown's Sheet Metal, lifting heavy exhaust fans that weighed approximately 700 pounds each. He worked for about four hours at this task. Appellant went to the doctor on December 31, 1998, and was diagnosed as having a kidney infection. When the pain in appellant's back persisted past the healing of the infection, he saw his regular doctor and several other doctors over the next two to three years for treatment of his back pain. Appellant sought workers' compensation benefits, contending that he had injured his back when lifting the fans at Virco. The administrative law judge denied appellant's claim. The Commission remanded the case to settle the record as to the deposition of appellant's witness, Dr. Thomas Hart. Thereafter, the law judge filed a supplemental opinion that modified his findings of fact and denied appellant's claim. The Commission affirmed and adopted the law judge's opinion and findings.

The Commission concluded that there was nothing in the record to indicate that a specific-incident injury had occurred and that appellant had thus failed to meet his burden of proving the existence of a compensable injury. Although appellant claimed he injured his back while lifting the fans, he could not identify a specific incident or moment in time when he might have sustained this injury. According to appellant's testimony, he suspected he had a kidney infection but could not tell if the pain he was experiencing was related to the kidney infection or if he had injured his back. Appellant stated that he assumed that because the fans were so heavy, lifting them must have been what caused his back to hurt. Appellant also acknowledged prior back injuries, occasions when he experienced low back pain severe enough to cause him to walk "in a crooked position," and involvement in an automobile accident in 1993.

One of appellant's co-workers testified that following the day's work, appellant stated that he thought he might have pulled something in his lower back. Several physicians treated appellant, and their collective testimony established that appellant had degenerative disc disease of the lumbar spine and that he suffered multi-level annular disc disruption or annular tears.

In determining the sufficiency of the evidence to support the findings of the Workers' Compensation Commission, we view the evidence and all reasonable inferences deducible therefrom in the light most favorable to the Commission's findings, and we will affirm if those findings are supported by substantial evidence. Winslow v. D & B Mech. Contractors, 69 Ark.App. 285, 13 S.W.3d 180 (2000). Substantial evidence is such relevant evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion. Id. The determination of the credibility and weight to be given a witness's testimony is within the sole province of the Commission. Farmers Coop. v. Biles, 77 Ark.App. 1, 69 S.W.3d 899 (2002). The Commission is not required to believe the testimony of the claimant or any other witness, but may accept and translate into findings of fact only those portions of the testimony it deems worthy of belief. Id. We will not reverse the Commission's decision unless we are convinced that fair-minded persons with the same facts before them could not have reached the conclusions arrived at by the Commission. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Sands, 80 Ark.App. 51, 91 S.W.3d 93 (2002).

Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the Commission's findings, the record shows that although appellant had suffered physical injury to his back, there is nothing to indicate that a specific-incident injury occurred other than appellant's own testimony that he "thinks" an injury must have occurred while he was lifting the heavy fans at Vireo. Appellant's medical records clearly demonstrate the presence of degenerative disc disease. There were no eyewitness accounts of the alleged injury, and appellant's own testimony is less than determinative; in fact, his testimony establishes that there was no specific incident of injury and that his claim of injury while lifting the fans is based solely upon his deduction that the injury must have occurred then because the fans were heavy.

Appellant's witness, Dr. Thomas Hart, opined that regardless of appellant's preexisting degenerative disc disease, the on-the-job lifting incident was the major cause of appellant's current disability. The Commission noted that while Dr. Hart had objectively proven the existence of annular tears that were causing appellant's back pain, he could only speculate as to the origin of the annular tears by relying on assumptions that had been furnished to him by appellant. The Commission found, in assessing the weight to accord Dr. Hart's opinion, an over-reliance by the doctor on the appellant's related history and accounts of an alleged job-related injury. The Commission further found that when subjected to cross-examination, the doctor's responses were speculative as to the issue of causal relationship.

It is well settled that the Commission has the authority to accept or reject medical opinion and the authority to determine its medical soundness and probative force. Oak Grove Lumber Co. v. Highfill, 62 Ark.App. 42, 968 S.W.2d 637 (1998). The Commission has a duty to use its experience and expertise in translating the testimony of medical experts into findings of fact. Id. It is the responsibility of the Commission to draw inferences when the testimony is open to more than a single interpretation, whether controverted or uncontroverted; and when it does so, its findings have the force and effect of a jury verdict. Marrable v. Southern LP Gas, Inc., 25 Ark.App. 1, 751 S.W.2d 15 (1988). The Commission is not bound by a doctor's opinion that is based largely on facts related by a claimant where the claimant's own testimony is less than determinative. See Roberts v. Leo Levi Hospital, 8 Ark.App. 184, 649 S.W.2d 402 (1983).

In reviewing the Commission's decision, the question is not whether the evidence would have supported findings contrary to the ones made by the Commission or even whether we would have reached a different conclusion upon the same facts; the question is whether reasonable minds could reach the conclusion made by the Commission. See Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. VanWagner, 337 Ark. 443, 990 S.W.2d 522 (1999); Winslow v. D & B Mech. Contrs., 69 Ark.App. 285, 13 S.W.3d 180 (2000). When a claim is denied because the claimant has failed to show an entitlement to compensation by a preponderance of the evidence, the substantial-evidence standard of review requires us to affirm if the Commission's opinion displays a substantial basis for the denial of relief. Daniels v. Arkansas Dep't of Human Servs., 77 Ark.App. 99, 72 S.W.3d 128 (2002). Here the Commission's decision displays a substantial basis for the denial of relief, and we affirm.

Interspersed throughout appellant's argument are references to his contention that the...