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Clayton v. Fleming Co.3/21/2000
dence that was omitted at the trial. He correctly contended that it is the duty of the WCC to grant a full and complete hearing to the parties before making or denying an award. Independent School District No. 1 of Tulsa County v. Albus, 1977 OK 241, 572 P.2d 554; Carpenter v. Douglas Aircraft Co., 1966 OK 218, 420 P.2d 911. In defense of the panel order, employer argued that claimant failed to comply with Rule 18A, Rules of the Workers' Compensation Court, 85 O.S.Supp.1999, ch. 4, app.
While the record reveals that claimant did not comply with Rule 18A, we decline to rest our decision on that basis. Rather, we conclude that the panel order overruling the motion to reopen was not prejudicial to claimant because the medical note referred to in his motion to reopen his case in chief was not relevant to the singular fact issue formed by the medical evidence admitted at the hearing, i.e., whether claimant's present physical difficulties with his lumbar spine were caused by a new injury or a worsening of a previously adjudicated injury. Accordingly, if the panel erred in overruling claimant's motion to reopen his case in chief, it was not reversible error.
V.
SUMMARY
In summary, we find that the trial judge's November 6, 1997 order denying the claim, affirmed by a three-judge panel of the Workers' Compensation Court, is sufficiently definite and certain to allow for meaningful judicial review and that it is supported by competent evidence. We also find that the Court of Civil Appeals exceeded its authority in mandating a procedure to be followed by the Workers' Compensation Court in all future cases where an employer resists an accidental injury claim by contending that the injury was incurred during other employment or resulted from a worsening of a previously adjudicated injury for which another employer is liable. We further find that the panel order overruling claimant's motion to reopen his case in chief was not reversible error.
CERTIORARI PREVIOUSLY GRANTED; OPINION OF THE COURT OF CIVIL APPEALS, DIVISION 4, IS VACATED; ORDER OF THE JUDGE OF THE WORKERS' COMPENSATION COURT DENYING THE CLAIM AND ORDER OF THE THREE-JUDGE PANEL AFFIRMING THE TRIAL JUDGE'S ORDER ARE SUSTAINED.
SUMMERS, C.J., HARGRAVE, V.C.J., and HODGES, LAVENDER, WATT, BOUDREAU, and WINCHESTER, JJ., concur.
KAUGER, J., concurs in result.
OPALA, J., concurs in part and dissents in part.
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