1974); Tom Still Transfer Co. v. Way, 482 S.W.2d 775 (Tenn. 1972); see also American Enka Corp. v. Sutton, 216 Tenn. 228, 391 S.W.2d 643 (1965); Magnavox Co. v. Shepherd, 214 Tenn. 321, 379 S.W.2d 791 (1964). But the issue under consideration in those cases was the proof necessary to establish a permanent disability, either partial or total.
This first presents the question of whether lay evidence is of probative value on the issue of causal relation between the trauma and the resulting disability due to the spinal disease, or does such require evidence presented by those qualifying as experts in the field of medicine. In the Magnavox Company of Tenn. v. Shepherd, 214 Tenn. 321, 379 S.W.2d 791 (1964), this Court said: While it is true that lay testimony, including that of the claimant, is of probative value in establishing such simple matters as the existence of pain, its location, petitioner's inability to work, etc., there are areas in which lay testimony is obviously incompetent.
It has been consistently held that lay testimony in all but the most obvious cases is insufficient to support a finding of medical causation or a finding of permanent disability. Magnavox Company of Tennessee v. Shepherd, 214 Tenn. 321, 379 S.W.2d 791 (1964); Floyd v. Tennessee Dickel Distilling Company, Tenn. 463 S.W.2d 684 (1971)."
However, while lay testimony of the claimant is of probative value in establishing simple matters such as existence of pain, its location, inability to work, etc., there are areas in which lay testimony is obviously incompetent. It has been consistently held that lay testimony in all but the most obvious cases is insufficient to support a finding of medical causation or a finding of permanent disability. Magnavox Company of Tennessee v. Shepherd, 214 Tenn. 321, 379 S.W.2d 791 (1964); Floyd v. Tennessee Dickel Distilling Company, Tenn., 463 S.W.2d 684 (1971). A review of the trial record reveals that both medical doctors who examined the employee stated that he suffered no permanent injury to his back as a result of the accident.
Such a condition is one that must be established if it is established at all, by expert medical testimony. See Magnavox Company of Tenn. v. Shepherd, 214 Tenn. 321, 379 S.W.2d 791. Dr. Shields testified that he could not associate hypertension with the injury. The petitioner's effort to prove permanent partial disability must fail for want of material evidence. We therefore overrule the first four assignments of error but must sustain the fifth and sixth assignments.
In the instant case, the employee and her husband were not competent to testify that the increased incapacity suffered by the employee `was due solely to her original injury.' This question was one for a doctor of medicine, thoroughly acquainted with the human anatomy, to determine." Magnavox Co. of Tennessee v. Shepherd, 214 Tenn. 321, 379 S.W.2d 791 (1964). The question of whether petitioner's foot injury caused the pain in his neck and back to develop nine months later is a complicated one and carries the finder of facts into realms which are properly within the province of medical experts.
1964), for further cases of like import. In the recent case of Magnavox Company of Tenn. v. Shepherd, 214 Tenn. 321, 379 S.W.2d 791 (1964), we reversed the action of the trial court in granting an increase to an award previously made because there was no competent proof of causal connection between the original injury and the alleged increased disability. In the Shepherd case the employee and her husband testified that her increased disability was due solely to her original injury.
. . . . . In the recent case of Magnavox Company of Tenn. v. Shepherd, 214 Tenn. 321, 379 S.W.2d 791 (1964), we reversed the action of the trial court in granting an increase to an award previously made because there was no competent proof of causal connection between the original injury and the alleged increased disability. In the Shepherd case the employee and her husband testified that her increased disability was due solely to her original injury. An expert medical doctor testified there was no causal connection between the original injury and the increased disability.