13 Pa. Commw. 584 | Pa. Commw. Ct. | 1974
Opinion by
Claimant-appellee, a 46-year old policeman with 17 years of service with the City of Philadelphia, appellant, was injured on January 12, 1970, while on duty. Claimant-appellee slipped on an icy surface, injuring his lower back. He performed his normal duties for a month and a half and limited duties for fifteen months thereafter.
An administrative conference before the Police Department’s Safety Officer was held on August 4, 1971,
As noted in appellant’s brief, “the sole question presented to the Commission was one of causation, whether the latent condition itself [i.e., claimant-appellee’s ‘degenerative joint disease’] was a disabling agent or whether the on-duty experience perpetuated or aggravated the condition so that it became disabling.” The Commission had before it the medical diagnoses of Dr. Lawlor and Dr. Ralston, both of whom diagnosed claimant-appellee’s condition as “degenerative joint disease.” Such diagnoses, however, merely describe a condition and do not address themselves to the issue of whether the accident of January 12, 1970, caused claimant-appellee’s disability.
The only evidence addressed to the issue of causation was the testimony of Dr. Stein who acknowledged the degenerative aspect involved but asserted that when claimant-appellee fell, “this pre-existing condition [i.e., ‘degenerative joint disease’] which was asymptomatic
This case does not involve, as appellant argues, questions of credibility. Those, of course, are questions for the fact finder, i.e., the Commission. The testimony of Dr. Stein was reviewed by the Commission which found that Dr. Stein, after acknowledging the degenerative aspects involved, had “asserted this condition was not disabling until it was aggravated by the accident of January 12, 1970.” This was the only testimony concerning causation. The Commission’s conclusion of non-service connection is inconsistent with its own finding and, therefore, constitutes reversible error.
The lower court accurately summarized the crux of this case when it stated: “Here, there was no evidence at all, let alone substantive evidence, that the degeneration, by itself, caused the disability. To put it conversely, there is no medical testimony to rebut Dr. Stein’s findings.” (Emphasis in original.)
Of course, the burden of establishing, by sufficient unequivocal medical evidence, the causal connection between the injury of January 12,1970, and the present disability is clearly upon the claimant-appellee. City of Philadelphia v. Hays, 13 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 621, 320 A. 2d 406 (1974). Here, the claimant-appellee, by the testimony of Dr. Stein which was uncontradicted and was reviewed and accepted by the Commission, has met that burden.
Defined in the Attorney’s Dictionary of Medicine, .T. E. Schmidt (Matthew Bender, 1971) as “showing no symptoms; pro