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BUFORD v. STANDARD GRAVEL COMPANY12/1/1999
ford would not benefit from any type of rehabilitation program. [Emphasis added.]
At the hearing on Buford's claim for additional benefits, he testified that he lives in a house provided rent free by his in-laws, and he draws social security disability of only $1,300 a month for himself, his wife and a child. He said he cannot sit, stand, sleep, drive, or walk for more than just a few minutes or carry anything over forty pounds. He can do minor maintenance on things like a vacuum cleaner, he sometimes does the dishes, and occasionally makes the beds, but he can do only minor yard work and gardening, although he admitted that he has mowed the yard a few times. He said he had also fished in a bass tournament and gone camping once a year.
Buford also testified that he has friends who live next door and down the street who are disabled like he is, and he walks to visit them. They talk, drink beer, watch television, and listen to music. Buford said he is not on regular pain medication because the insurance
company has refused to cover it, and he cannot afford to pay for the prescriptions himself. He said the only thing he has to deaden the pain is beer.
Buford has been evaluated by two rehabilitation companies. One wanted him to become a welder instructor, but they sent him, a journeyman welder, to school to learn basic welding. There is no training in El Dorado that a journeyman welder can take to learn to become an instructor. Furthermore, Buford cannot speak to a class for thirty to forty minutes at a time because of his throat injury , and he can only talk loud enough for a class to hear him "if they were quiet."
The second rehabilitation company forwarded approximately twenty-three job "opportunities" to Buford, and he filled out applications with those employers "honest." Buford explained that if the application had a question about disability on it, he answered truthfully because he is disabled, but if the application did not specifically ask for the information, he did not volunteer it.
The administrative law judge awarded appellant a 30% anatomical impairment and a 20% wage-loss disability, to be paid by the Second Injury Fund. The Commission affirmed and adopted his opinion. The Second Injury Fund has not appealed its liability. On appellate review, we must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the findings of the Commission and give the testimony its strongest probative force in favor of the action of the Commission. Boyd v. General Indus., 22 Ark. App. 103, 733 S.W.2d 750 (1987); McCollum v. Rogers, 238 Ark. 499, 382 S.W.2d 892 (1964). Our standard of review on appeal is whether the decision of the Commission is supported by substantial evidence. Boyd v. General Indus., supra; City of Fayetteville v. Guess, 10 Ark. App. 313, 663 S.W.2d 946 (1984). Substantial evidence is such relevant evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion. Boyd v. Dana Corp., 62 Ark. App. 78, 966 S.W.2d 946 (1998); Wright v. ABC Air, Inc., 44 Ark. App. 5, 864 S.W.2d 871 (1993). We do not reverse a decision of the Commission unless we are convinced that fair-minded persons with the same facts before them could not have arrived at the conclusion reached. Silvicraft, Inc. v. Lambert, 10 Ark. App. 28, 661 S.W.2d 403 (1983). Where the Commission denies a claim because of the claimant's failure to meet his burden of proof, the substantial-evidence standard of review
requires that we affirm the Commission's decision if its opinion displays a substantial basis for the denial of relief. Johnson v. General Dynamics, 46 Ark. App. 188, 878 S.W.2d 411 (1994); Johnson v. American Pulpwood Co., 38 Ark. App. 6, 826 S.W.2d 827 (
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