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Radica v. Mills2/1/1994
ss it shall be made to appear . . . that there has been error due to fraud, misrepresentation, undue influence or [mutual] mistake." This is a case of admitted liability and the Commission's Conclusion that there was no evidence to show causation is not a basis for denying plaintiff's award.
Accordingly, we conclude that the Deputy Commissioner erred in concluding that "plaintiff has the burden of establishing by expert medical testimony the causal connection between her injury of 18 April 1988 and . . . any periods of disability she may have suffered after 21 September 1988. Click v. Pilot Freight Carriers, 300 N.C. 164, 265 S.E.2d 389 (1980)." We note that in Click the employer did not admit liability as the employee there provided conflicting accounts as to the origin of his injury . Id. Furthermore, upon a careful examination of Click we find that the precise holding of that case would be inapplicable to the facts presented here even in the absence of defendant-employer's admission of liability. In Click, our Supreme Court expressly set forth the specific admonition concerning the requirement of a plaintiff's presentation of expert opinion evidence regarding causation:
We do not rule out the possibility that a disc injury case may arise in the future wherein the facts are so simple, uncontradictory, and obvious as to permit a finding of a causal relationship between an accident and the injury absent expert opinion evidence. For instance, in Tickle v. Insulating Co., 8 N.C. App. 5, 173 S.E.2d 491 (1970), the Court of Appeals upheld a workmen's compensation award for temporary total disability resulting from a nonspecific lower back injury (not a disc injury), despite the lack of expert medical evidence linking the back condition with the work place accident. The court held evidence that the onset pain of which plaintiff complained was simultaneous with the accident, along with other evidence in the case, was sufficient to allow the trier of fact to draw a reasonable inference that the injury was the proximate result of the accident. The Supreme Court of Oregon has noted that the "distinguishing features" of most compensation cases holding medical testimony unnecessary to make a prima facie case of causation include:
"An uncomplicated situation, the immediate appearance of symptoms, the prompt reporting of the occurrence by the workman to his superior and consultation with a physician, and the fact that the plaintiff was theretofore in good health and free from any disability of the kind involved. A further relevant factor is the absence of expert testimony that the alleged precipitating event could not have been the cause of the injury . . . ." Uris v. State Compensation Department, 247 Or. 420, 426, 427 P.2d 753, 756 (1967). (Citations omitted.)
Click, 300 N.C. at 168-69, 265 S.E.2d at 391-92. Our Supreme Court proceeded to state that the facts in Click did not present this type of situation because other evidence in the case suggested that the employee's injury was caused by an occurrence unrelated to work and at the employee's home. Accordingly, our Supreme Court held that medical testimony was needed to provide a proper foundation for the Industrial Commission's finding on the question of the injury's origin. Id. at 169, 265 S.E.2d at 392. These facts are readily distinguishable from the simple and uncontroverted facts regarding the origin of the injury presented here. In its appellate brief, defendant concedes that "the parties do not dispute that the appellant was injured at work while pulling a spinning bobbin from a s
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