Harvey v. Workmen's Compensation Commissioner & Island Creek Coal Co.

I respectfully dissent from the majority opinion on the grounds that the Appeal Board and the Commissioner did not liberally construe the evidence or the Workman’s Compensation Act in favor of the claimant, consistent with the well established law in West Virginia. Sowder v. State Workmen’s Compensation Commissioner, 155 W. Va. 889, 189 S.E.2d 674 (1972); Buckalew v. State Compensation Director, 149 W.Va. 239, 140 S.E.2d 453 (1965).

The majority finds that the claimant’s aggregated ascertainable impairments do not amount to an 85% total disability. They concede that if the evidence were…