LIBERTY MUT. INS. v. S.C. SECOND INJURY FUND
2/27/1995
pertinent part:
If an employee who has a permanent physical
impairment from any cause or origin incurs a
subsequent disability from injury by accident
arising out of and in the course of his
employment, resulting in compensation and
medical payments liability or either, for
disability that is substantially greater, by
reason of the combined effects of the
preexisting impairment and subsequent injury
or by reason of the aggravation of the
preexisting impairment, than that which would
have resulted from the subsequent injury
alone, the employer or his insurance carrier
shall in the first instance pay all awards of
compensation and medical benefits provided by
this Title; but such employer or his
insurance carrier shall be reimbursed from the
Second Injury Fund as created by ยง 42-7-310 for
compensation and medical benefits.
Claimant suffered a
The circuit court held:
While the single hearing commissioner's Order
apparently does not specifically find as a
fact that the two injuries combined and
resulted in a greater disability, it certainly
is inherent in the record. That is, the
Claimant had been working prior to the May 5,
1989 injury and from the record was out at
least more than one hundred thirteen (113)
weeks after that injury. Based on that
evidence, this Court deems it unnecessary to
remand this case to the Workers' Compensation
Commission for a finding of that fact.
We agree with the circuit court's conclusion. In Mohasco Corp., Dixiana Mill Div. v. Rising, 289 S.C. 130, 345 S.E.2d 249 (Ct.App. 1986), this court reversed and remanded a workers' compensation case back to the Commission for lack of an express finding of one of the six elements necessary to show a compensable occupational disease. The Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals holding the Commission need not make an express finding of all the elements. Mohasco Corp., Dixiana Mill Div. v. Rising, 292 S.C. 489, 357 S.E.2d 456 (1987). We find sufficient evidence in the record to determine the Commission considered whether the two injuries combined and resulted in a greater disability in making its decision. See Dixon v. Nucor Steel Corp., 295 S.C. 387, 368 S.E.2d 680 (Ct.App. 1988).
Affirmed.
SHAW, CURETON and GOOLSBY, J.J., concur.