Jamilla Burney-Divens v. Community Corrections Administration/Commonwealth of Virginia

CourtCourt of Appeals of Virginia
DecidedMay 3, 2016
Docket1588152
StatusUnpublished

This text of Jamilla Burney-Divens v. Community Corrections Administration/Commonwealth of Virginia (Jamilla Burney-Divens v. Community Corrections Administration/Commonwealth of Virginia) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jamilla Burney-Divens v. Community Corrections Administration/Commonwealth of Virginia, (Va. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA

Present: Judges Petty, Beales and Alston UNPUBLISHED

Argued at Richmond, Virginia

JAMILLA BURNEY-DIVENS MEMORANDUM OPINION BY v. Record No. 1588-15-2 JUDGE WILLIAM G. PETTY MAY 3, 2016 COMMUNITY CORRECTIONS ADMINISTRATION/ COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA

FROM THE VIRGINIA WORKERS’ COMPENSATION COMMISSION

Brooke T. Alexander (Reid Goodwin, PLC, on brief), for appellant.

Mary Hendricks Hawkins, Assistant Attorney General (Mark R. Herring, Attorney General; Rhodes B. Ritenour, Deputy Attorney General; Scott John Fitzgerald, Senior Assistant Attorney General, on brief), for appellee.

Jamilla Burney-Divens (“employee”) appeals a decision of the Workers’ Compensation

Commission denying her claim. On appeal, employee argues that the Commission erred in

finding that she failed to prove a compensable injury by accident arising out of her employment

when she was involved in a single-car rollover accident resulting in memory loss regarding the

rollover because: (1) The Commission failed to properly apply the facts of her pre-existing

migraines, testimony of vision loss, and medical records documenting vision loss to an idiopathic

condition, (2) the Commission erred in finding that pleading two alternative theories of

compensability concedes an uncertainty that leads to the failure of employee to meet her

evidentiary proof for either theory, and (3) the Commission erred in holding that PYA/Monarch

and Reliance Ins. Co v. Harris, 22 Va. App. 215, 468 S.E.2d 688 (1996), controls the facts of this

case. For the following reasons, we affirm the Commission’s ruling.

 Pursuant to Code § 17.1-413, this opinion is not designated for publication. I. BACKGROUND

Because the parties are fully conversant with the record in this case and this

memorandum opinion carries no precedential value, we recite below only those facts and

incidents of the proceedings as are necessary to the parties’ understanding of the disposition of

this appeal. “Under settled principles of appellate review, we consider the evidence in the light

most favorable to employer, as the prevailing party before the commission.” Layne v. Crist Elec.

Contr., Inc., 64 Va. App. 342, 345, 768 S.E.2d 261, 262 (2015). “Consistent with this

well-established standard, ‘we cannot “retry the facts, reweigh the preponderance of the

evidence, or make [our] own determination of the credibility of the witnesses.”’” Id. (quoting

McKellar v. Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding Inc., 63 Va. App. 448, 451, 758 S.E.2d 104, 105

(2014)). “In addition, the commission’s ‘conclusions upon conflicting inferences, legitimately

drawn from proven facts, are equally binding on appeal.’” Id. (quoting McKellar, 63 Va. App. at

451, 758 S.E.2d at 105).

Here, the evidence established that employee worked as a regional administrator for the

Community Corrections Administration (“employer”). In that role, she spent approximately

seventy-five percent of her time driving, in a car provided for her by employer. On August 20,

2012, employee sustained a compensable injury by accident and injured her lower back. On

September 17, 2012, she had a medical appointment for her lower back pain. She did not take

her lower back pain medication that morning because the side effects hindered her driving. After

her appointment, she picked up her employer-provided vehicle from her home in Martinsville

and began driving to Staunton for a meeting with her supervisor. During the drive, she was

involved in a single-car accident in which her car left the road and went down an embankment.

Employee testified that after driving past a sign for Boones Mill, her vision diminished and

started blurring. The next thing she remembered was crawling out of the car and hearing a -2- bystander ask if she was all right. She did not remember what specifically caused her to run off

the road.

At the hearing before the deputy commissioner, employee alleged that her accident was

caused by an idiopathic condition of blurred vision due to her pre-existing migraine headaches.

In the alternative, she alleged that the accident occurred when she experienced a black-out

episode due to her severe back pain. The deputy commissioner found the evidence insufficient

to prove either of these theories. The deputy commissioner therefore ruled that employee’s

accident was “unexplained” and denied her claim. On review, the full Commission rejected

employee’s argument that she suffered visual problems as a result of an idiopathic condition. It

went on to agree with the deputy commissioner, holding that

[e]ven if we assume that visual problems developed before the accident, it is also unknown whether these problems played a causative role in the accident. We cannot infer from the existence of visual problems alone that they played a causative role in the accident. The accident could have been caused by another vehicle running the claimant off the road, or by the claimant attempting to avoid a deer, or by some mechanical problem with her car, or by some other factor independent of her blurred vision. . . . The claimant simply has no memory of the events which caused the accident, and the evidence she introduced failed to establish the cause.

Employee now appeals.

II. ANALYSIS

Employee alleges the Commission erred in denying her claim for three reasons. We

address them in order:

A. Idiopathic Condition

First, employee argues that the Commission erred in finding that she failed to prove that

she had a loss of vision from an idiopathic condition which caused her accident. An idiopathic

accident is one where the injury was “caused by a preexisting personal disease of the employee.” -3- Southland Corp. v. Parson, 1 Va. App. 281, 283, 383 S.E.2d 162, 163 (1985). Whether an

accident was caused by an idiopathic condition is a finding of fact. See id. “‘[W]e are bound by

[the Commission’s] findings of fact as long as “there was credible evidence presented such that a

reasonable mind could conclude that the fact in issue was proved.”’” City of Waynesboro v.

Griffin, 51 Va. App. 308, 312, 657 S.E.2d 782, 784 (2008) (quoting Perry v. Delisle, 46

Va. App. 57, 67, 615 S.E.2d 494, 497 (2005)). “Factual findings of the commission will not be

disturbed on appeal unless plainly wrong or without credible evidence to support them.” Ga.

Pac. Corp. v. Dancy, 17 Va. App. 128, 135, 435 S.E.2d 898, 902 (1993). “[T]he existence of

‘contrary evidence . . . in the record is of no consequence if credible evidence supports the

commission’s finding.’” Griffin, 51 Va App. at 312, 657 S.E.2d at 784 (alteration in original)

(quoting Manassas Ice & Fuel Co. v. Farrar, 13 Va. App. 227, 229, 409 S.E.2d 824, 826 (1991)).

In this case, the Commission found that there was not credible evidence proving the

employee had an idiopathic condition that caused her to lose her vision at the time of the

accident. The Commission reached this finding because “despite thorough diagnostic testing,

claimant’s medical providers were unable to identify any idiopathic condition existing at the time

of the accident.” As the Commission recognized, the medical evidence included notations from

multiple physicians regarding employee’s history of migraine headaches. However, employee’s

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