 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Kelly v. Baltimore County1/31/2005
or and affirmed an award by the Commission. Noting that one of the permissible inferences from the testimony presented to the Commission was that the employee's death had arisen out of and in the course of his employment, this Court stated that, "the choice between those inferences should not be made as a matter of law, but should be submitted to the trier of fact." 49 Md. App. 176. This Court reversed the circuit court's summary judgment, concluding: "The court's error was in resolving the disparate inferences in the claimant's favor on summary judgment. In doing so, it acted as a trier of fact, which was not its function at that point." Id. at 182.
In the instant case, we also conclude that summary judgment was inappropriate. The main issue in the case -- whether Kelly's employment-related back injury was causally connected to his back surgery -- was in dispute between the parties, and the evidence presented to the Commission permitted more than one inference to be drawn therefrom.
Kelly, who presented medical reports that referred to both his pre-existing December 2001 back injury and his employment-related October 2002 injury, also testified before the Commission that his condition had improved after receiving the first two nerve block injections. He further testified that, prior to the 2002 auto accident, he was not going to undergo the surgery. Kelly introduced a medical record dated October 10, 2002, which made reference to back and leg pain prior to receiving the injection on that date. One week later, when Kelly appeared for a second injection on October 17, 2002, Dr. Dey recorded a note that reflected: "the patient does not report any further leg pain." When Kelly was next seen by Dr. Dey, within one week after the auto accident, Dr. Dey's medical report stated: " he patient was 100 percent improved," but " ecently, the patient had a side impact, work-related motor vehicle accident since which time the pain in his legs have returned." Additionally, Kelly testified that he missed only two to three days of work right after the December 2001 injury, and had been in incidents involving fights with suspects, but had never re-injured his back until the October 2002 motor vehicle accident.
This evidence gave rise to permissible inferences from which the Commission could have rationally concluded that the employment-related accident "exacerbated [Kelly's] pre-existing condition requiring the need for surgery...." Likewise, it met the test for sufficiency of the evidence reiterated by this Court in Starke v. Starke, 134 Md. App. 663 (2000): "In any case, civil or criminal, to meet the test of legal sufficiency, evidence (if believed) must either show directly, or support a rational inference of, the fact to be proved." Id. at 679 (quoted in Keystone Masonry Corp. v. Hernandez, 156 Md. App. 496, 506 (2004)). Moreover, to the extent other permissible inferences could be drawn from this evidence, the inferences should have been resolved against the County -- the moving party -- as stated in Peck, supra, 286 Md. at 381 ("all inferences must be resolved against the moving party when a determination is made as to whether a factual dispute exists"). The circuit court failed to do so.
Expert Medical Testimony
The County contends that summary judgment was appropriate in this case because the issue of causation amounted to a complicated medical question that required expert medical testimony to establish causal connection. The County claims that Kelly failed to submit any medical testimony that affirmatively establishes causation, and that in the absence of such testimony, the circuit court was correct in granting summary judgment in its favor as a matter of law.<
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Maryland Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|