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Cannon v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.7/5/2005
in the 18 April 2001 automobile accident while en route to receive treatment for his 6 April 2001 work-related injury. We find that, regardless of whether plaintiff was en route to receive treatment for his work-related injury, the automobile accident was not an independent intervening cause because it did not result from plaintiff's own intentional conduct. Rather, the evidence shows, and defendants do not contend otherwise, that the automobile accident was the result of another driver's negligence. Therefore, the accident was not an intervening cause precludingcompensation for aggravation of plaintiff's work-related injury. See, e.g., Baker v. City of Sanford, 120 N.C. App. 783, 789, 463 S.E.2d 559, 564 (1995), disc. review denied, 342 N.C. 651, 467 S.E.2d 703 (1996) (since the plaintiff's brother's death "was not attributable to plaintiff's own intentional conduct," the plaintiff was entitled to compensation for the exacerbation of his work-related depression); Horne, 119 N.C. App. at 687, 459 S.E.2d at 800-01 (finding that an automobile accident was not an independent, intervening cause of the plaintiff's injury because there was no evidence that the plaintiff's own intentional conduct caused the accident).
Furthermore, we find that competent evidence in the record supports the Commission's conclusion of law that the automobile accident aggravated plaintiff's work-related injury . Dr. Jeffrey Baldwin (Dr. Baldwin), plaintiff's chiropractor, testified that the automobile accident exacerbated the work-related injury:
The [automobile] accident . . . is a trauma to the spine. Even though the majority of the trauma was up top, any trauma to the spine, especially if an area is already damaged, . . . the spine is going to absorb that trauma to some extent throughout the course of the spine, and it's going to affect the lower back if there was a previous existing problem down there . . . .
Therefore, the Commission did not err in finding as fact and concluding as a matter of law that the automobile accident aggravated or exacerbated plaintiff's work-related injury .
IV.
Defendants' next assignment of error contends that competentevidence does not support the Commission's finding of fact and conclusion of law that plaintiff's pre-existing spinal kyphotic deformity was materially aggravated or exacerbated by the 6 April 2001 work-related injury .
North Carolina law is clear that " hen a pre-existing, nondisabling, non-job-related condition is aggravated or accelerated by an accidental injury arising out of and in the course of employment . . . so that disability results, then the employer must compensate the employee for the entire resulting disability[.]" Morrison v. Burlington Industries, 304 N.C. 1, 18, 282 S.E.2d 458, 470 (1981). As long as "the work-related accident 'contributed in "some reasonable degree"' to plaintiff's disability, [the plaintiff] is entitled to compensation." Hoyle v. Carolina Associated Mills, 122 N.C. App. 462, 466, 470 S.E.2d 357, 359 (1996) (citations omitted). However, a plaintiff must prove by a "preponderance of the evidence" that the accident was a causal factor resulting in the disability. Ballenger v. ITT Grinnell Industrial Piping, 320 N.C. 155, 158-59, 357 S.E.2d 683, 685 (1987).
In workers' compensation cases that involve "complicated medical questions far removed from the ordinary experience and knowledge of laymen, only an expert can give competent opinion evidence as to the cause of the injury." Click v. Freight Carriers, 300 N.C. 164, 167, 265 S.E.2d 389, 391 (1980). Furthermore, "expert opinion testimony [that] is based merely upon speculation and conjecture . . . is not sufficiently relia
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