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Aragon v. State9/24/1991
ng steel pipe onto his roof. Because the evidence was that the prior injury was part of the cause of the later disability, the court reversed the denial of compensation. Id. In Town of Hudson v. Wynott, the worker injured his back in June 1976. He received medical treatment until September 1980. Between September 1980 and July 1983, the worker did not seek medical treatment for his back. In July 1983, the worker, at his own bait shop, lifted a styrofoam bait pail containing about a gallon of water and reinjured his back. The court held that, despite the three-year stabilization, the worker was entitled to benefits because the work-related incident was part of the cause of the subsequent disability and thus the direct and natural result of the work-related injury. Id. Finally, in Rich v. Vail Ballou Press, Inc., 33 A.D.2d 1088, 307 N.Y.S.2d 943 (1970), the worker sustained a back injury in May 1962. In May 1966, he did not receive benefits and did not incur lost time, so the insurer closed his case. He suffered reinjury in August 1967. The evidence was that part of the cause of the 1967 disability was the 1962 injury. Therefore, the court concluded that the 1962 employer should have compensated the worker. Id.
In the Brackett, Grable, Wynott and Rich cases, there was an apparent end to a worker's back difficulties, much like the situation in this case. In each case, there was a nonwork-related reinjury that occurred after the worker was apparently fully able to continue work, as in this case. In each case, the evidence was that part of the cause of the latter disability was the prior work-related injury , as in this case. There is nothing about the causation formulas in these cases that make their reasoning somehow inapplicable to the case at hand. Moreover, they support the view that Professor Larson's treatise concludes that, if worker's 1983 accident was in part the cause of his 1988 disability, that disability is compensable.
In sum, I believe that there may have been substantial evidence that there was no causal connection between the 1983 accident and the 1988 disability. Yet the record reflects a decision by the WCJ that, whether or not there was evidence of a causal connection, he was going to rule that there would be no compensation. He did so without considering whether the exertion leading to the 1988 accident was unreasonable under the circumstances of worker's condition. See 1 A. Larson, supra p. 3-517, 13.11(a). There is no express finding that the 1983 accident was not part of the cause of the 1988 disability. Whether the 1983 accident was part of the cause was a central issue in the case. In fact, the WCJ's "benefits analysis" findings deal exclusively with the 1988 accident and disability. It is incongruous that the WCJ left such findings to inference from his rejection of all tendered findings not expressly adopted, unless he misunderstood the legal significance of the 1983 accident. On the peculiar state of this record, I think it manifestly just to remand for a rehearing, based on the evidence already in the record, in accordance with the legal principles described above. See .
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