338 Mass. 468 | Mass. | 1959
This is an insurer’s appeal from a decree of the Superior Court under G. L. c. 152, § 11, which, in accordance with a decision of a reviewing board, ordered compensation to the claimant, a former employee of the insured American Sugar Refining Company.
1. There was evidence to support the findings that the claimant’s left shoulder was injured on August 15, 1949, in the course of his employment, and that the disability for
The claimant testified to the accident. There was evidence that he had been treated on August 16 and thereafter for an injury which he ascribed to an accident on August 15 and which could reasonably be found to be related to it, if it occurred.
A private physician who, on August 23, 1949, treated the claimant for the claimed injury, and who saw him in July and September, 1952, testified that in his opinion the condition he found in 1949 was causally related to the injury. In September, 1952, the physician found the claimant, as he testified, “in the same condition as he was when . . . [JieJ saw him shortly after the accident.” Another physician, Dr. Norton, examined the claimant on November 30, 1953", and January 4, 1954, and had seen X-rays or reports of X-ray examinations of November 30, 1953, and February 14, 1955. He testified that there was a causal relation between the injury and the aggravation of underlying arthritis. The employer’s physician who saw the claimant a number of times testified that in his opinion the hurt to the employee’s shoulder related to his work when it occurred, but that the 1954 condition was not related. The report of another physician, in evidence, stated that he found conditions consistent with traumatic arthritis, probably secondary to an old injury, but that he saw no connection to the alleged accident of 1949.
It is unnecessary, we think, to set out the cross-examinatian of Dr. Norton on which the insurer relies to establish that his opinion must be rejected as mere conjecture. It went no farther than to affect the weight to be given to his conclusion. Dr. Norton’s opinion remained some evidence to support the conclusion of causal connection. Josi’s Case, 324 Mass. 415, 416. See Cooper’s Case, 271 Mass. 38, 40; Clifford’s Case, 337 Mass. 129, 132. See also Gianfriddo’s Case, 319 Mass. 566, 567-568. Compare Green’s Case, 266 Mass. 355; Ruschetti’s Case, 299 Mass. 426; Sevigny’s Case, 337 Mass. 747.
3. The significance of the evidence to support the findings is not extinguished by other evidence or findings. We need not pause on the point that the single member incorrectly stated that the claimant’s account of the accident was confirmed by the insurer’s own witnesses. The Superior Court recommitted the case on this objection, and specification was made as ordered by the court. However weak, or lacking, the evidence of corroboration by others, there was the claimant’s direct testimony, and the single member on re-
There is nothing in the contention that the several errors which the insurer has specified, with the confused testimony, taken together, require reversal. It is well established that the findings are not to be set aside if there is any supporting evidence, including all rational inferences. Pigeon’s Case, 216 Mass. 51, 52. Gianfriddo’s Case, 319 Mass. 566, 567. Mahoney’s Case, 337 Mass. 629, 631. There was no obscurity as to the application of the correct rule of law. There were sufficient findings to permit judicial review of the questions of law involved. Compare MacFarlane’s Case, 330 Mass. 573.
4. The statute, G. L. c. 152, § 11A, provides that “If the certification or appeal to the superior court ... is by the insurer, and the claimant prevails, the superior court . . . and, on further appeal, the single justice, or full bench, shall
5. The decree is affirmed. Costs of the appeal are to be determined by the single justice.
So ordered.