Pascucci v. Industrial Commission

This is a hard case and from such a case bad law may flow. Given the hearing officer’s determinations that the claimant now suffers from a herniated disc and that the herniation is causally connected to his prior industrial injury, an award denying him compensation would appear unjust. However, the principles of res judicata are not concerned with the justness of a given result, only with finality. Unless we are prepared to abandon those principles here, this award must be affirmed.

To put this matter in proper perspective, the key evidence involved both in the reopening hearing of 1977 (which…