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Carlyle v. Queen's Medical Center9/20/2002
the Board's pretrial specification of August 22, 1996 as the date of injury, see id. ("whether Flor contracted the virus on the precise date of her claimed injury is not dispositive of the compensability of her claim"), the error was harmless. From the beginning of the hearing before the Board, whether Claimant suffered injury on the date of the needle stick was never an issue. Despite the objection of Employer's counsel, and at the insistence of Claimant, the hearing was conducted on the issue framed by Claimant -- "whether [Claimant] sustained an injury that arose out of and in the course of her employment [with Employer]." As discussed, substantial evidence was adduced at the hearing to the contrary, and the Board did not err in concluding the contrary.
As to the latter point, Claimant complains, in a specification inexplicably directed to error on the part of the Director, that "Dr. Gima . . . is not a qualified hepatologist and an employee of [Employer]." This point lacks merit. Dr. Gima was adequately qualified, through both direct examination and cross-examination, as an appropriate medical expert at the hearing before the Board, and issues relating to his qualifications and any bias resulting from his employment were for the Board and not for us on appeal:
Finally, having concluded that [the employer] adduced substantial evidence which, if true, could rebut the presumption of compensability, we review the Board's decision in light of our deference to its role in assessing the relative credibility and weight of the evidence for and against compensability, mindful that [the employer] bears the burden of persuasion as to which [the claimant] should be given the benefit of the doubt. Nakamura v. State, 98 Hawaii 263, 270, 47 P.3d 730, 737 (2002). See also Igawa, 97 Hawaii at 409-10, 577-78 ("we will not pass upon the doctors' relative credibility").
III. Conclusion.
For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the Board's December 19, 2000 decision and order.
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