CASE NO. 257 CRD-7-83Workers’ Compensation Commission
FEBRUARY 5, 1986
The Claimant was represented by John A. Ackerly, Esq.
The Respondents were represented by Douglas L. Drayton, Esq.
This Petition for Review from the August 19, 1983 Finding and Award of the Commissioner for the Seventh District was argued November 30, 1984 before a Compensation Review Division panel consisting of the Commission Chairman, John Arcudi and Commissioners Robin Waller and Frank Verrilli.
FINDING AND AWARD
The Finding and Award of the Commissioner, as supplemented and corrected, is adopted as the Finding and Award of this Division.
OPINION
JOHN ARCUDI, Chairman.
At the outset both parties appealed the Finding and Award issued August 19, 1983 by the Seventh District Commissioner. Since then the respondent employer has withdrawn its appeal. The Commissioner in his decision had awarded temporary total benefits to claimant for the period March 19, 1977 to February 4, 1979 but had denied temporary total, temporary partial and permanent partial benefits claimed after that date.
The employer and the employee had stipulated that certain toxic chemicals were present in the workplace processes. The claimant had argued that he had suffered toxic intoxication from exposure to these chemicals causing periods of disability from work and permanent brain damage with resulting permanent disability. The respondent initially denied all these claims. The Commissioner found there had been toxic intoxication but with no permanent sequelae.
In his appeal the claimant attacks paragraphs 22, 23 and 24 of the Finding. Paragraph 22 finds toxic intoxication with no permanency; paragraph 23 finds claimant is suffering from cerebral arteriosclerotic disease unrelated to the toxic exposure of March 18, 1977 and paragraph 24 finds no permanent partial disability of the brain.
As carefully chronicled in the Finding, both sides presented expert medical testimony. The principal medical witness for claimant was Dr. Sidney P. Diamond, a professor of neurology and member of the staff at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. He testified claimant had suffered toxic intoxication at work causing claimant to be disabled from 1977 until the date of the hearing in July, 1982. Claimant’s other medical witnesses generally supported this diagnosis.
The respondent’s chief medical expert was Dr. James D. Prokop, a Stamford neurosurgeon. He concluded that claimant may have had some initial disability due to toxic fumes at work, but that their effect was only temporary. Dr. Prokop testified (TR, 3/7/83, pp. 20-24) that claimant’s seizures were chiefly secondary to arteriosclerotic disease.
Claimant did not work for several years after the March, 1977 exposure. However he did work as a bank messenger for about a year after February 4, 1979. As to that period he claimed only partial disability benefits but subsequent to those months of employment renewed his claim for total.
We have examined the testimony in the extensive hearings before the Commissioner. Particularly, we have carefully perused the medical testimony. It is abundantly clear that the trial Commissioner had sufficient evidentiary basis to support his ultimate conclusion on a close question of conflicting medical testimony. As we held in Gecewicz v. Sealtest Foods Division, 77 CRD-1-81, 1 Conn. Workers’ Comp. Rev. Op. 195
(1982) citing Battey v. Osborne, 96 Conn. 633
(1921) and Adzima v. UAC/Norden Division, 177 Conn. 107 (1979), it is not for us, an appellate tribunal, to substitute our conclusion on the evidence for those of the Commissioner. It is within his province alone to determine, on conflicting and confusing evidence, what the facts are.
Therefore the appeal of the claimant is dismissed and the decision of the Commissioner is affirmed.
Commissioners Robin Waller and Frank Verrilli concur.