Peterson v. Industrial Commission

129 P.2d 563, 102 Utah 175, 1942 Utah LEXIS 51
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 7, 1942
DocketNo. 6441.
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 129 P.2d 563 (Peterson v. Industrial Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Peterson v. Industrial Commission, 129 P.2d 563, 102 Utah 175, 1942 Utah LEXIS 51 (Utah 1942).

Opinions

LARSON, Justice.

Certiorari to review the action of the Industrial Commission denying compensation. Parley Peter Peterson, husband of applicant, was employed by defendant, Board of Education, as a school janitor. On January 13,1941, while pushing a heavy broom mop (about 25 pounds) up a ramp in the school building, he sustained an accidental injury which ruptured the left saphenous internal vein half way between the knee and the hip joint. From this he developed a thrombophlebitis in both legs and a series of pulmonary embolisms, and on February 17 suffered a cerebral embolism or lesion causing a flacid paralysis of the right side, from which he *177 died February 23. Defendant, State Insurance Fund, as insurance carrier for the Board of Education admitted the injury but denied that the cerebral emboli causing death resulted from the accident. The case was heard before Commissioner Jugler who recommended full compensation for death. No order was entered until after Commissioners Jugler and McShane had been replaced by two new members on the Industrial Commission. An order was then entered denying compensation on the ground that death did not result from the accident. Plaintiff brings certiorari to review and annul the order. But one question is presented: Does the record compel or necessitate a finding that death was due to the accident? Or to put it otherwise, was the Commission arbitrary in not finding from the record that the cerebral embolism from which Peterson died was the result of the injury he suffered on January 13?

Where the evidence will sustain different conclusions, we do not weigh the evidence and draw our own conclusions therefrom. Utah-Idaho Cent. R. Co. v. Ind. Comm., 71 Utah 490, 267 P. 785; Parker v. Ind. Comm., 78 Utah 509, 5 P. 2d 573; Hauser v. Ind. Comm., 77 Utah 419, 296 P. 780; Kent v. Ind. Comm., 89 Utah 381, 57 P. 2d 724. We uphold the conclusion of the commission if reasonable minds, in view of and from the evidence in the record, could so conclude. But to sustain the conclusion of the Commission the evidence must be substantial evidence, competent evidence, evidence upon which a reasonable mind, a judicious mind, may be content to rest its judgment. As stated by Mr. Justice Straup in Kavalinakis v. Ind. Comm., 67 Utah 174, at page 187, 246 P. 698, at page 702:

“This court in a number of instances has uniformly held that an order of the commission granting an award would not be disturbed if there is any substantial competent evidence to support it; and when on the record there was no substantial competent evidence to support the award this court without hestation annulled it, not because the order was made capriciously, but because there was no evidence to support it. Now I think the same principle of law applies to the converse of the proposition; that is to say, the commission may not any *178 more make an order refusing an award against undisputed competent evidence demanding an award than to make one granting an award without evidence to support it. In other words, if the order in the one instance granting an award is not supported by any substantial competent evidence, and in the other refusing an award is against the undisputed competent evidence demanding it, the order in neither instance can be upheld.
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“Notwithstanding the commission as to this, like a jury, is the sole judge of the facts, the credibility of witnesses, and the weight to be given to their testmony, nevertheless, it, like a jury, is required to take as true, undisputed or uncontradicted evidence, if not opposed to probabilities or common knowledge, or contrary to natural or physical laws, or inherently improbable, or inconsistent with circumstances in evidence, or contradictory in itself, or does not from the very nature of things come from witnesses directly interested, and it is impossible to secure opposing testimony, or where the witnesses from whom comes the evidence are impeached or otherwise discredited.”

In the same case Mr. Justice Frick on page 181 of ■67 Utah, on page 700 of 246 P. put it thus:

“The commission may not, without any reason or cause, arbitrarily or capriciously refuse to believe and to act upon credible evidence which is unquestioned and undisputed.”

In the instant case we are not asked to determine if there is any evidence to support the finding of the commission. We are asked to determine that the probative force of the evidence is such as compels a finding contrary to that made by the commission. The commission having denied an award, found no liability on the insurance carrier or employer, we Are asked to declare that the evidence requires or compels a holding to the contrary; that the findings are so against the evidence as to find no support therein; that there is nothing in the evidence upon which a reasonable mind, a judicious mind could rest in arriving at a conclusion, and therefore the conclusion must have been arrived at arbitrarily or capriciously without regard to the evidence. See discussion in Kavalinakis v. Ind. Comm., and Gagos v. Ind. *179 Comm., 87 Utah 92, 39 P. 2d 697, 699; on rehearing 87 Utah 101, 48 P. 2d 449; also Kent v. Industrial Commission, supra.

In the Gagos case, Mr. Justice Moffat stated the rule thus:

“But, on the other hand, when there is nothing in the record to-weigh or balance against uncontradicted material, substantial, competent evidence, it likewise becomes a question of law that a finding must accord with such uncontradicted material, substantial, competent evidence. If such evidence demands an affirmative finding, such finding must be made; if a negative finding, then a negative finding must, be made.”

And Mr. Justice Hansen on page 100 of 87 Utah, on page 700 of 39 P. 2d quoting from 23 C. J. § 1791, p. 47, said:

“Uncontradicted evidence should ordinarily be taken as true, and cannot be wholly discredited or disregarded if not opposed to probabilities, or arbitrarily rejected, even though the witnesses are parties or interested; and where the evidence tends to establish a fact which it is within the power and to the interest of the opposing party to disprove, if false, his failure to attempt to disprove it strengthens the probative force of the evidence tending to prove it. Uncontradicted evidence is not, however, necessarily binding on the court or a jury but may be disbelieved where it is contrary to natural or physical laws, opposed to common knowledge, inherently improbable, inconsistent with circumstances in evidence, or somewhat contradictory in itself, especially where the witness is a party or interested, or where in the very nature of things, it is impossible to secure opposing testimony.”

Such being the rules and tests laid down by this court, we-will now examine the record.

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129 P.2d 563, 102 Utah 175, 1942 Utah LEXIS 51, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/peterson-v-industrial-commission-utah-1942.