CLAIM NO. E801661
Before the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission
ORDER FILED DECEMBER 9, 1999
Upon review before the FULL COMMISSION in Little Rock, Pulaski County, Arkansas.
Claimant represented by the HONORABLE LAWRENCE FITTING, Attorney at Law, Fort Smith, Arkansas.
Respondent represented by the HONORABLE BUD ROBERTS, Attorney at Law, Little Rock, Arkansas.
Decision of the Administrative Law Judge: Vacated and remanded.
ORDER
Both parties appeal an opinion and order filed by the administrative law judge on June 29, 1999. In that opinion and order, the administrative law judge found that the claimant sustained a compensable occupational disease (asthma) for which the claimant is entitled to medical treatment and a period of temporary disability compensation. The administrative law judge also found that the claimant has sustained substantial permanent physical impairment, as revealed by pulmonary function testing, but that the medical evidence presented is insufficient to show the specific percentage or degree of the claimant’s impairment. Nevertheless, the administrative law judge found that the claimant has sustained a permanent partial disability of 50% to the body as a whole for loss of wage earning capacity.
The respondent’s primary point on appeal is that the administrative law judge erred in awarding wage-loss disability under these circumstances. The respondents specifically assert that the claimant’s pulmonary function testing was not objective, as the administrative law judge has indicated. The claimant asserts on appeal that she proved by a preponderance of the evidence that she is entitled to permanent total disability benefits. The claimant also asserts that the administrative law judge had a duty to “translate” the evidence and make a finding of the percentage of permanent physical impairment based on a preponderance of the evidence before him.
As we understand the administrative law judge’s analysis of the permanent impairment issue, the administrative law judge concluded that (1) the claimant’s pulmonary function testing was purely objective (2) that pulmonary function testing is a means to assign a permanent anatomical impairment rating under the AMAGuides (3) that the claimant’s pulmonary function testing indicated substantial permanent physical impairment but (4) the administrative law judge simply declined to make a specific finding as to the degree of impairment established by a preponderance of the evidence in the record.
With regard to the first part of the administrative law judge’s analysis — that the claimant’s pulmonary function testing was “purely objective” — we note that the administrative law judge has failed to explain on what evidentiary or legal basis that he has reached this conclusion.
In addition, we note that it is the duty of the Commission, not the doctors, to translate the evidence into findings of fact regarding the claimant’s claim for permanent anatomical impairment benefits. See, Johnson v. General Dynamics, 46 Ark. App. 188, 878
S.W.2d. 411 (1994); Dwight Murry v. Riceland Foods, Full Workers’ Compensation Commission, Opinion filed January 20, 1999 (No. E516632); Robert L. Glover v. ConAgra Poultry, Full Workers’ Compensation Commission, Opinion filed May 5, 1999 (No. E604592);Henry Bell v. Pine Bluff Toyota, Full Workers’ Compensation Commission, Opinion filed May 27, 1999 (No. E614140). Consequently, the claimant’s attorney is correct. The administrative law judge’s findings, that the claimant sustained a “substantial” but indeterminable degree of permanent physical impairment, is an inadequate finding under the circumstances presented in the present case.
We hereby remand this case to the administrative law judge for more adequate findings on the issues indicated herein. We do not at this time reach the issue of the compensability of the claimant’s condition or the appropriate award of benefits for that condition.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
_______________________________ ELDON F. COFFMAN, Chairman
_______________________________ PAT WEST HUMPHREY, Commissioner
_______________________________ MIKE WILSON, Commissioner