Opinion
Jan. 22, 1974.
Editorial Note:
This case has been marked 'not for publication' by the court.
Litvak, Schwartz & Karsh, P.C., Denver, for respondent Rose Marie Garner.
Francis L. Bury, Robert S. Ferguson, Denver, for petitioners the Neusteter Co. and Division of State Compensation Insurance Fund.
John P. Moore, Atty. Gen., John E. Bush, Deputy Atty. Gen., Peter L. Dye, Asst. Atty. Gen., Denver, for respondent Industrial Commission of the State of Colorado.
ENOCH, Judge.
The Neusteter Company and Division of State Compensation Insurance Fund, petitioners, seek review of a final order of the Industrial Commission in which an award was granted to claimant Rose Marie Garner. We reverse.
Claimant filed a claim under the Colorado Occupational Disease Disability Act, C.R.S.1963, 81--18--1 et seq., as amended, for disability resulting from 'contact dermatitis.' She was employed as a manicurist, and it was alleged that her condition was caused by nail polish and polish remover used in her work.
After a series of hearings following petitions for review filed at different times by both claimant and petitioners, the Commission entered its final Supplemental Findings of Fact and Award affirming the referee's original determination that claimand sustained an occupational disease, I.e., contact dermatitis. The Commission further found:
'. . . that as a result of claimant's sustained occupational disease, she has suffered permanent partial disability equivalent to 10% As a working unit as a direct result of said disease. Claimant was born January 9, 1925, having attained an age of 46 years with a life expectancy of 26.95 years.'
Despite the existence of a substantial record on which adequate findings could have been based, the quoted language embodies the only findings of fact made by either the Commission or the referee.
We agree with petitioners' contention that the Commission failed to make ultimate and evidentiary findings of fact to support the award as required by 1969 Perm.Supp., C.R.S.1963, 81--14--6. As the Supreme Court noted in Womack v. Industrial Commission, 168 Colo. 364, 451 P.2d 761, 'Insufficiency of fact-finding has been a persistently recurring problem for this court in cases involving the state Industrial Commission . . .. Time has neither mitigated the duty, nor alleviated the problem.' The Commission's failure to make specific findings requires us to set aside the order and remand the case to the Commission for fulfillment of its fact-finding function. Womack v. Industrial Commission, Supra; Tague v. Coors Porcelain Co., 29 Colo.App. 226, 481 P.2d 424.
The order of the Commission is set aside and the cause remanded for further proceedings consistent herewith.
PIERCE and RULAND, JJ., concur.