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Higgins v. Quaker Oats Co.11/29/2005
nue to work until the cumulative injury left her permanently and totally disabled as of February 1998. We acknowledge the following principle:
pre-existing but non-disabling condition does not bar recovery of compensation if a job -related injury causes the condition to escalate to the level of disability. If substantial evidence exists from which the Commission could determine that the claimant's pre-existing condition did not constitute an impediment to performance of claimant's duties, there is sufficient competent evidence to warrant a finding that the claimant's condition was aggravated by a work-related injury.
Miller v. Wefelmeyer, 890 S.W.2d 372, 376 (Mo. App. 1994) (citations omitted). The Commission noted that Employee had previously suffered back pain, but that pre-existing back pain had not persistently prevented her from working prior to February 1998. Furthermore, this court "is bound by the Commission's factual determinations when the evidence supports either of two opposing findings." Kent, 147 S.W.3d at 868. We cannot say the Commission's decision was against the overwhelming weight of the evidence.
Our decision in Bloss v. Plastic Enterprises, 32 S.W.3d 666 (Mo. App. 2000), guides us in assessing the Commission's finding that Employee's mental disability resulted from her cumulative trauma injury. In Bloss, the employer alleged that the employee's mental disability did not arise out of her employment. Id. at 672. Evidence in Bloss showed that the employee had psychological problems before the physical accident giving rise to the workers' compensation claim: she suffered histrionic personality disorder, presented a history of alcoholism and drug abuse, and had been hospitalized for mental issues. Id. at 673. This court agreed with the employee's complaint "that instead of focusing on her diagnosed psychological impairment, the [employer] attempt to paint her as a bad person by pointing to wholly irrelevant evidence of childhood sexual abuse and marital problems that pre-date by fifteen years or more the [present] injury and symptoms arising therefrom." Id. The Commission found the employee permanently and totally disabled by the combination of her back injury and the concomitant "symptom magnification disorder." Id. The court affirmed, noting the dispute over the cause of the employee's mental injury and saying, " here the right to compensation depends upon which two conflicting medical theories should be accepted, the issue is peculiarly for the Commission's determination." Id. at 672 (internal quotation marks omitted).
Here, the Commission similarly weighed conflicting medical explanations for Employee's mental disability. The Commission concluded that her prior mental stressors had not caused any permanent psychiatric disability and that her present mental disability was solely consequent to the cumulative trauma. The Commission relied on Dr. Pro's opinion that Employee did not have, prior to the cumulative trauma injury, any psychiatric disability that was a hindrance to employment. Dr. Pro noted that Employee had returned to work after her prior psychiatric hospitalization, and had previously coped with her family-related stress. We find the Commission's decision supported by sufficient competent evidence.
The test for permanent total disability is whether the employee is "competent to compete in the open labor market," i.e., unable to return to any "reasonable or normal employment." Gordon v. Tri-State Motor Transit Co., 908 S.W.2d 849, 853 (Mo. App. 1995). Vocational expert Mary Titterington testified that, based upon the limitations placed on Employee by her doctors and her pain-induced inability to concentrate, Ms. Higgins was
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