Filtered Decisions

The Commission reversed the Administrative Law Judge's award of permanent total disability benefits from the Second Injury Fund, finding insufficient competent evidence that pre-existing conditions combined with the primary injury to cause permanent total disability. The employee failed to meet his burden of proof that actual and measurable pre-existing disabilities existed at the time of the primary injury.

The Commission reversed the Administrative Law Judge's award, finding that the employee's bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome was not attributable to an occupational disease arising from her employment. The decision emphasizes that the employee failed to establish the required causal connection between workplace conditions and the claimed occupational disease.

The Court of Appeals reversed and remanded the claim, finding that the Commission's denial of benefits based on lack of direct contractual relationship between claimant and Nationwide Paper was a misapplication of law. David Martinez, a self-employed lumper, was injured on May 26, 1999 while unloading a truck at Nationwide's facility after being contracted by the truck driver.