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Chiafos v. Municipal Fire & Police Retirement System of Iowa3/24/1999
ith the retirement board and was awarded accidental disability benefits whereas Chiafos lost with the board. In finding substantial evidence supported the award to the Cedar Rapids firefighter, we in no way intimated that the same evidence would not have supported a contrary administrative finding.
The second crucial difference between the City of Cedar Rapids case and the present one lies in Dr. Mouw's inability to pinpoint one injury at a definite time and place that caused Chiafos' condition. In City of Cedar Rapids we found that, although there was a series of back injuries, there was "at least one defined acute injury that was most noticeable." Id. at 289. The doctor in that case testified there was a "well-defined insult in 1984 from which he has not fully recovered in spite of adequate surgical consultation and medical evaluation and treatment." Id. We determined from this testimony and other evidence in the case that the degenerative disc condition arose from a chain of events in natural progression from the 1984 back injury. Id. at 290.
IV. We are obliged to renounce the standard for determining causation suggested by the court of appeals in the opinion we now vacate. On the basis of its holding in Bushman v. Cuckler Building Systems, a Division of Lear Siegler, Inc., 421 N.W.2d 145, 148 (Iowa App. 1988), the court of appeals held that Chiafos could establish causation in the present case by expert testimony that his injury was "possibly" work related, coupled with other evidence that the condition did not previously exist. The court of appeals would have remanded to have Chiafos' claim reconsidered on such a standard. We note that our rejection of the Bushman standard of causation is limited to claims brought under Iowa Code section 411.6(5). For the reasons we have explained, we think the rejection of accidental disability benefits must be affirmed.
DECISION OF COURT OF APPEALS VACATED; DISTRICT COURT JUDGMENT AFFIRMED.
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