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Frame v. Resort Services Inc.2/2/2004
] to recover workers' compensation benefits, he must prove both: (1) that he was exposed to unusual and extraordinary conditions in his employment; and (2) that these unusual and extraordinary onditions were the proximate cause of his mental breakdown. See generally Powell, supra; Gambrell v. Burleson, 252 S.C. 98, 165 S.E.2d 622 (1969) (must prove causal connection between injury and subsequent condition in workers' compensation cases).
Id. at 459, 535 S.E.2d at 444.
We find the Full Commission, as the ultimate fact finder in Workers' Compensation cases, failed to sufficiently specify its factual findings to the degree required by the amended statute. See Shealy v. Aiken County, 341 S.C. 448, 535 S.E.2d 438 (2000) (holding the Workers' Compensation Commission is the ultimate finder of fact). Specifically, by simply adopting the order of the single commissioner, no finding of "extraordinary or unusual circumstances" leading to the injury was articulated.
Frame relies on Powell v. Vulcan Materials Co., 299 S.C. 325, 384 S.E.2d 725 (1989), for the proposition that a work-related altercation could legally amount to an "unusual and extraordinary" condition of employment notwithstanding the lack of any specific stated finding on the issue. Frame's reading of the case is misguided.
In 1996, partially in response to Powell, the legislature amended section 42-1-160 of the South Carolina Code to include the following provisions:
Stress arising out of and in the course of employment unaccompanied by physical injury and resulting in mental illness or injury is not a personal injury unless it is established that the stressful employment conditions causing the mental injury were extraordinary and unusual to the normal conditions of the employment.
[A mental injury] is not considered compensable if it results from any event or series of events which is incidental to normal employer/employee relations such as...[nonexclusive list]... except when these actions are taken in an extraordinary and unusual manner.
S.C. Code Ann. ยง 42-1-160 (Supp. 2002) (emphasis added).
While this amendment maintains the part of Powell that held a purely mental injury compensable under the statute, it adds the requirement, non-existent when the court decided Powell, that the finder of fact make a specific finding that such an injury arose from "extraordinary and unusual" circumstances. The circumstances must be "extraordinary and unusual" in regard to the particular employment in question and not as applied to some general notion of the average reasonable employment. See Shealy, 341 S.C. at 457, 535 S.E.2d at 443.
Frame argues, per the "substantial evidence" rule and this court's standard of review, that the record provides a significant number of facts to allow a reasonable person to conclude his injury was a result of unusual and extraordinary conditions. We agree that a reasonable mind could possibly make such a finding based on the evidence of this case. The issue here, however, is not whether such conclusion could be reached as an issue of fact, but rather, was such conclusion reached as required by law.
The findings of fact made by the Full Commission must be sufficiently detailed to enable the reviewing court to determine whether the evidence supports the findings. Parsons v. Georgetown Steel, 318 S.C. 63, 66, 456 S.E.2d 366, 368 (1995). The mere mention of a "specific trigger event" by the single commissioner, later cited by the circuit court as proof that this required finding was made, is not a satisfactory showing that the Full Commission found the conditions on the date of Frame's decompensation "extraordinar
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