Hale v. Fluor Daniel Corp.

830 So. 2d 1252, 2002 WL 798588
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedApril 30, 2002
Docket2001-WC-00092-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 830 So. 2d 1252 (Hale v. Fluor Daniel Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hale v. Fluor Daniel Corp., 830 So. 2d 1252, 2002 WL 798588 (Mich. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

830 So.2d 1252 (2002)

Wanda L. Jackson HALE, Appellant,
v.
FLUOR DANIEL CORPORATION and CNA Insurance Corporation, Appellees.

No. 2001-WC-00092-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

April 30, 2002.
Rehearing Denied July 23, 2002.
Certiorari Denied November 21, 2002.

*1253 Robert E. O'Dell, Pascagoula, attorney for appellant.

Michael McElhaney, Jr., Pascagoula, attorney for appellees.

Before KING, P.J., IRVING, and BRANTLEY, JJ.

IRVING, J., for the court.

¶ 1. Wanda L. Hale appeals from a decision of the Circuit Court of Jackson County which affirmed the decision of the Workers' Compensation Commission (Commission) finding that Hale did not suffer an injury arising out of and in the course of her employment with Fluor Daniel Corporation. She asserts seven issues, five of which are clustered around the primary issue of whether the Commission erred in its determination that Hale did not suffer a work-related injury. Consequently, we have recast her seven issues into three issues as follows: (1) whether the Commission erred in its finding that Hale did not suffer a work-related injury, (2) whether the Commission erred in denying Hale's motion to allow additional evidence, and (3) whether the Commission's procedures and findings deprived Hale of due process of law.

¶ 2. We find no merit in the issues raised; therefore, we affirm the decision of the trial court which affirmed the decision of the Commission.

FACTS

¶ 3. Wanda Hale filed a petition to controvert against Fluor Daniel Corporation and its workers' compensation carrier, CNA Insurance Corporation, alleging that she injured her lower back at work on February 3, 1997. Specifically, Hale alleged that she was injured when she attempted to lift, and pass to another worker, a come-a-long off a hook on the rear wall of the tool room where she worked. She contends that she suffered an injury to her coccyx. The employer and carrier denied that she suffered a work-related injury. Following a hearing, the administrative law judge appointed to hear the case denied Hale's claim for benefits and dismissed her petition. The administrative law judge determined that Hale had failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that she had suffered an injury arising out of and in the course of her employment. Among other things, the administrative law judge noted that Hale's testimony regarding the event of her injury was not corroborated by any witness, but more importantly, disputed by every "other witness who testified at the hearing except her husband and he had no personal knowledge."

¶ 4. Thereafter, Hale filed with the Commission a motion to allow additional evidence. The Commission denied the motion *1254 and affirmed the administrative law judge's decision that Hale did not suffer a work-related injury. This appeal follows Hale's unsuccessful appeal to the Circuit Court of Jackson County of the Commission's decision.

ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF THE ISSUES

¶ 5. We first observe that there was substantial uncontradicted medical testimony that Hale was suffering from chronic low back pain and injury to her coccyx. The question is not whether she suffered an injury but whether the injury she suffered arose out of and during the course of her employment. There was considerable testimony regarding Hale's fall from a horse prior to the alleged injury at work. The exact time of the fall from the horse was the subject of considerable dispute. As stated, the Commission determined that Hale did not suffer a work-related injury.

¶ 6. We observe next, that the findings of an administrative agency will be binding on the appellate court so long as they are supported by substantial evidence, are not arbitrary or capricious, are not beyond the scope or power granted to the agency, or violative of one's constitutional rights. Hedge v. Leggett & Platt, Inc., 641 So.2d 9, 12 (Miss.1994); Allen v. Mississippi Employment Sec. Comm'n, 639 So.2d 904, 906 (Miss.1994). An appellate court will reverse an order of the Commission only when such order is clearly erroneous and contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence. Hedge, 641 So.2d at 12.

1. The Commission's Failure to Find the Existence of a Work-related Injury

¶ 7. Hale properly asserts that she has the initial burden to show by a fair preponderance of the evidence that she suffered an accidental injury arising out of and in the course of her employment with Fluor Daniel and a causal connection between the injury and the death or claimed disability. Id. at 13. "[O]nce the claimant makes out a prima-facie case of disability, the burden of proof shifts to the employer." Id. Hale notes, and we agree, that a pre-existing disease or infirmity does not prevent an injury from "arising out of employment" if the employment aggravated, accelerated, or combined with the disease to produce a disability. Id.

¶ 8. As stated, the Commission affirmed the order of the administrative law judge. In determining that Hale did not suffer any compensable injury, the administrative law judge stated:

The claimant's testimony regarding the event of her injury is not corroborated by any other witness. This alone is not fatal to her case, because the uncorroborated testimony of a claimant can be competent evidence to substantiate a claim, as long as it is found to be credible and trustworthy. See Dunn, Mississippi Worker's Compensation, Section 264, pp. 320-21. And the undisputed testimony of a claimant generally ought to be accepted as true, so long as it is not unreasonable within the factual setting of the claim. White v. Superior Products Inc., 515 So.2d 924, (Miss. 1987). The claimant's problem is that her testimony regarding her injury is not merely disputed, it is disputed by every other witness who testified at the hearing except her husband, and he has no personal knowledge of the events of or surrounding the alleged injury. "[N]egative testimony concerning the cause of injury may be substantial evidence upon which a claim may be denied," White v. Superior at 927, and the *1255 weight of the credible testimony here is substantially negative.

¶ 9. The judge also explained that Deborah Coney and Betty Wood testified that Hale had told each of them that she had fallen from a horse the weekend preceding the date of Hale's alleged injury and there was "nothing in the record to indicate they knew each other." The judge further explained that nothing in the record or in each witness's testimony "indicated that either of them was an unreliable or untrustworthy witness."

¶ 10. Hale contends that the administrative law judge did not follow Hedge in determining that she did not meet her initial burden and that, "by any fair evaluation of the evidence, she clearly made out a prima facie case." As to the injury or soreness suffered in the horseback ride, Hale argues that, in the worse case scenario, the injury or soreness from the horseback ride should be viewed as a preexisting injury which was aggravated by the work-related injury and that the aggravation/combination rule cited in King v. Westinghouse Elec. Corp., 229 Miss. 830, 92 So.2d 209 (1957), should apply. Lastly, Hale argues that the administrative law judge's total reliance on clearly inconsistent and uncertain testimony of Betty Wood and Deborah Coney is incredible because being sore from a horseback ride does nothing to establish the occurrence of any injury to the spine.

¶ 11.

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Bluebook (online)
830 So. 2d 1252, 2002 WL 798588, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hale-v-fluor-daniel-corp-missctapp-2002.