Opinion
Record No. 2547-92-4
December 7, 1993
FROM THE VIRGINIA WORKERS' COMPENSATION COMMISSION.
Steven M. Gombos (Robert J. Lowe, Jr.; Seth C. Berenzweig; Lowe Associates, P.C., on briefs), for appellant.
Craig A. Brown (Ashcraft Gerel, on brief), for appellee.
Present: Chief Judge Moon, Judges Elder and Judge Fitzpatrick.
Argued at Alexandria, Virginia.
Pursuant to Code § 17-116.010 this opinion is not designated for publication.
Nordstrom, Inc. appeals a decision from the Workers' Compensation Commission awarding claimant, Veronica H. Thomas, temporary disability benefits from July 18, 1991 through November 13, 1991, and again beginning on January 30, 1992 and continuing. Because the commission's decision is supported by credible evidence, we affirm.
On June 26, 1990, Thomas sustained injuries to her knee, hands, and back when she slipped and fell in the employer's stock room. At the time of the injury, Thomas was employed by Nordstrom as a salesperson in its shoe department. After the injury, she came under the care of Dr. Charles R. Ubelhart. He noted that Thomas weighed 196 pounds and diagnosed her as having an acute trochanteric busistis and left patellar tendinitis. The employer accepted her accident as compensable and executed a memorandum of agreement reciting several injuries.
Throughout the year following the accident, Thomas gained over thirty pounds. By July 18, 1991, Thomas lost the weight she had gained the previous year.
On May 17, 1991, pursuant to Code § 65.2-708, Thomas sought reinstatement of benefits for total incapacity beginning April 1, 1991. She had previously received benefits for various periods of total and partial incapacity pursuant to an award entered by the commission on January 15, 1991. This award had been terminated effective November 23, 1990 pursuant to an Agreed Statement of Facts filed by the parties.
The deputy commissioner found that Thomas had sustained additional incapacity and awarded her temporary total disability from April 2, 1991 through November 13, 1991, and from January 30, 1992 and continuing. Nordstrom thereupon requested a review by the full commission.
The commission modified the deputy commissioner's decision by shortening the first period of benefits awarded to her so that benefits began on July 18, 1991, rather than April 2, 1991, and ran through November 13, 1991. As a basis for this modification, the commission held that Thomas' disability from April 2, 1991, through July 17, 1991 resulted from obesity, not from her industrial accident. The commission affirmed the deputy's decision in all other respects.
Decisions of the commission as to questions of fact are binding on this Court if supported by credible evidence. Manassas Ice Fuel Co. v. Farrar, 13 Va. App. 227, 229, 409 S.E.2d 824, 826 (1991). Factual findings of the commission are conclusive and binding upon this Court if those findings are based on credible evidence. Fairfax Hospital v. DeLaFleur, 221 Va. 406, 410, 270 S.E.2d 720, 722 (1980). If reasonable inferences may be drawn from that credible evidence, this Court will not disturb those inferences on appeal. Hawks v. Henrico County School Bd., 7 Va. App. 398, 404, 374 S.E.2d 695, 698 (1988).
The commission noted that by July 18, 1991, the beginning date of its award, Thomas was at or below her pre-injury weight of 196 pounds and was complying with her doctor's instruction to continue losing weight. As of this date, the commission found that Thomas' weight played no part in her ongoing disability. There was credible evidence that Thomas' disability was similar to that she suffered after the accident and before her weight increase. This credible evidence supports the commission's inference that Thomas' temporary disability claim from July 18, 1991, through November 13, 1991, and again beginning on January 30, 1992, was casually related to the accident. Because credible evidence established that Thomas' disability flowed directly from injuries sustained in her industrial accident, the commission's opinion is affirmed.
Affirmed.