City of El Dorado v. Smith

|1BN. Mark Klappenbach,

Judge, dissenting.

I respectfully dissent. The majority opinion has affirmed the Commission’s conclusion that Smith provided objective evidence to prove the existence of an aggravation injury to his recently-operated-on lumbar spine. There is simply no substantial evidence of record to support this finding, and our standard of review does not insulate the Commission from requiring that proof. To be clear, in this case, causation and credibility are not the relevant issues. Whether Smith proved the existence of a new compensable injury is the issue. The workers’…