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Williams Industries Inc. v. Wagoner2/11/1997
on affirmed the deputy commissioner's opinion, finding that the record proved that claimant's AVN was both aggravated by and aggravated claimant's back injuries. The commission found employer liable for claimant's AVN condition, even if the condition was idiopathic in etiology.
Analysis
On appeal, we review the evidence in the light most favorable to the party prevailing below. R.G. Moore Bldg. Corp. v. Mullins, 10 Va. App. 211, 212, 390 S.E.2d 788, 788 (1990). Factual findings by the commission that are supported by credible evidence are conclusive and binding upon this Court. Code § 65.2-706; Manassas Ice & Fuel Co. v. Farrar, 13 Va. App. 227, 229, 409 S.E.2d 824, 826 (1991).
The commission found, and claimant concedes, that no evidence proved that his original back injury caused the AVN in his hips. Claimant argues, however, that his AVN pre-existed his back injury and was aggravated by the back injury. Employer argues that claimant's AVN arose after claimant's back injury and became debilitating independent of the back injury.
The doctrine of compensable consequences is well established and has been in existence for many years. We have stated the basic principle:
"When the primary injury is shown to have arisen out of and in the course of employment, every natural consequence that flows from the injury likewise arises out of the employment, unless it is the result of an independent intervening cause attributable to claimant's own intentional conduct." Morris v. Badger Powhatan/Figgie, Int'l., Inc., 3 Va. App. 276, 283, 348 S.E.2d 876, 879 (1986) (quoting A. Larson, The Law of Workmen's Compensation, § 13 and 81.30).
Larson further explains that:
"A distinction must be observed between causation rules affecting the primary injury . . . and causation rules that determine how far the range of compensable consequences is carried, once the primary injury is causally connected with the employment. As to the primary injury, it has been shown that the "arising" test is a unique one quite unrelated to common law concepts of legal cause, and . . . the employee's own contributory negligence is ordinarily not an intervening cause preventing initial compensability. But, when the question is whether compensability should be extended to a subsequent injury or aggravation related in some way to the primary injury, the rules that come into play are essentially based upon the concepts of "direct and natural results," and the claimant's own conduct as an independent intervening cause." Id. at § 13.11.
In Burlington Mills Corp. v. Hagood, 177 Va. 204, 13 S.E.2d 291 (1941), claimant was working at a machine, about fifteen feet from an electric motor which was being repaired. A loose wire in the motor caused a short circuit, which produced an electric flash and a sound resembling that of a shotgun. Claimant saw the flash and fell backwards when she was rescued by a co-employee. First aid was administered and she was sent home. She testified that she was in good health prior to this incident. She returned to work the following day. While at work about a month later, claimant looked up and suddenly saw the employee who had caught her when she fell. She fainted and fell and at the time of the hearing had not returned to work. The medical evidence of both parties conclusively established that the cause of the disability was traumatic neurosis. The commission traced this to the original accident and awarded compensation for the neurosis. The Supreme Court said:
"The doctors thus, in effect, stated that traumatic neurosis was traceable to the shock or disturbing effect on the nerves of the patient, and that in turn, t
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