CASE NO. 646 CRD-2-87Workers’ Compensation Commission
JULY 12, 1989
The claimant appeared pro se.
The respondents were represented by Jason Dodge, Esq., Pomeranz Drayton Stabnick.
This petition for Review from the September 24, 1987 Finding and Award of Compensation and Denial the of Claim of the Commissioner for the Second District was presented February 24, 1989 before a Compensation Review Division panel consisting of the Commission Chairman, John Arcudi, and Commissioners Gerald Kolinsky and Andrew P. Denuzze. No oral argument was had: the matter was decided on briefs.
OPINION
JOHN ARCUDI, CHAIRMAN.
Claimant appearing pro se in the Second District sought certain benefits he claimed to be due him because of a compensable injury some fifteen years before on February 1, 1970. Hearings were held August 6 and December 7, 1985 and January 7 and 24, 1986. Subsequent to those hearings a deposition of Dr. John German was entered into evidence. Also received into evidence were reports of two New Jersey orthopedic surgeons, Dr. James Lee of East Orange and Dr. Burgess Berlin of South Orange.
After reviewing all the evidence the Second District Commissioner agreed that claimant had suffered a compensable injury to his head and neck February 1, 1970 arising out of and in the course of his employment with the Respondent Employer, Electric Boat. The Commissioner also concluded that claimant at the time of the hearings before him was suffering from a permanent impairment of the cervical spine. However, he found that the cervical spine impairment, the ongoing headaches and aggravation of underlying cervical osteoarthritis were not caused by the 1970 injury. Rather they were caused by conditions predating that injury, as testified to by Dr. John German.
Claimant seeks to ferry the matter before us, citing the testimony of Dr. Lee and Dr. Berlin. But it is not for us as an appellate body to substitute our factual conclusions for those of the trial Commissioner unless his decision constituted an abuse of discretion, Fair v. People’s Savings Bank, 207 Conn. 535 (1988). We do not so find.
The Second District decision is affirmed and the appeal is dismissed.
Commissioners Gerald Kolinsky and Andrew P. Denuzze concur.