Keller Manufacturing Co. & Bituminous Casualty Corp. v. Hoke

I’Anson, C.J.,

dissenting.

I cannot agree with the majority’s conclusion that there was no causal connection between claimant’s January 18, 1972, injury and her change in condition.

Upon a review of the evidence, a majority of the full Commission concluded “that the claimant probably suffers from a conversion reaction and that the payment of compensation is [unconsciously] intertwined with her mental problems. However, we cannot penalize the claimant if the involvement and termination of her compensation payments has aggravated her mental state. We are not free to speculate, and there is no evidence before us on which we can find that the change in claimant’s mental condition was brought about by some non-compensable cause. Moreover, we recognize that Dr. Knorr was one of the treating physicians while the other two physicians saw the claimant on only one occasion each.”

The majority of the Commission also found as facts that claimant was disabled for work beginning on May 1, 1973, and that the change in her condition was not disassociated from her January 18, 1972, injury. The reasons given by the Commission for not finding claimant disabled for work on an earlier date were that her “testimony is inconclusive as to [the] dates” of the onset of the change in her condition, and that Dr. Knorr’s testimony established that she was suffering from a conversion reaction on May 1, 1973. These findings do not justify this court in holding that there was no causal connection between the injury of January 18,1972, and the change in her condition.

The conclusion of the Commission, upon conflicting credible evidence, that a certain physical condition does or does not exist is a finding of fact binding upon us. McPeek v. P. W. & W. Coal Co., 210 Va. 185, 188, 169 S.E.2d 443, 445 (1969); Johnson v. Capitol Hotel, 189 Va. 585, 588, 54 S.E.2d 106, 107-08 (1949); Code § 65.1-98. Moreover, it is peculiarly within the province of the Commission to decide what weight is to be given conflicting credible evidence. McPeek, supra; Kelly v. Pendleton Const. Co., 182 Va. 191, 194, 28 S.E.2d 621, 623 (1944).

Since there was credible evidence supporting the Commission’s findings of fact, I would affirm the award.