Opinion
CASE NO. 5170 CRB-2-06-12CLAIM NO. 200151204
JANUARY 16, 2008
ERRATA SHEET
Please replace page six of the Compensation Review Board's Opinion dated January 9, 2008 with the attached page six. that heart disease is the number one cause of death in the United States accounting for 29% of deaths in America.http://www.cdc.gov/dhdsp/announcements/american_heart_month.htm. (Last visited 11/7/07)." Chappell v. Pfizer, Inc., 5139 CRB-2-06-10 (November 19, 2007). We also must extend extensive deference to the fact finding prerogative of the trial commissioner, as we explained in McMahon v. Emsar, Inc., 5049 CRB-4-06-1 (January 16, 2007).
We begin by stating that the role of this board on appeal is not to substitute its own findings for those of the trier of fact. Dengler v. Special Attention Health Services, Inc., 62 Conn. App. 440, 451 (2001). The trial commissioner's role as factfinder encompasses the authority to determine the credibility of the evidence, including the testimony of witnesses and the documents introduced into the record as exhibits. Burse v. American International Airways, Inc., 262 Conn. 31, 37 (2002); Tartaglino v. Dept. of Correction, 55 Conn. App. 190, 195 (1999), cert. denied, 251 Conn. 929 (1999). If there is evidence in the record to support the factual findings of the trial commissioner, the findings will be upheld on appeal. Duddy v. Filene's (May Department Stores Co.), 4484 CRB-7-02-1 (October 23, 2002); Phaiah v. Danielson Curtain (C.C. Industries), 4409 CRB-2-01-6 (June 7, 2002). This board may disturb only those findings that are found without evidence, and may also intervene where material facts that are admitted and undisputed have been omitted from the findings. Burse, supra; Duddy, supra. We will also overturn a trier's legal conclusions when they result from an incorrect application of the law to the subordinate facts, or where they are the product of an inference illegally or unreasonably drawn from the facts. Burse, supra; Pallotto v. Blakeslee Prestress, Inc., 3651 CRB-3-97-7 (July 17, 1998). McMahon, Id.
In reviewing the evidence, we believe it was a reasonable conclusion for the trial commissioner to reach after hearing credible testimony from the claimant and his supervisor that unlike the circumstances in other cases where the claimant prevailed on a cardiac stress claim, there was nothing at work that added unusual stress to the claimant on or before October 28, 1986. In his Motion to Correct, the claimant sought to add specific facts as to the overall stress level imposed on the claimant due to the status of the Seawolf submarine program in this time period. We do not believe these facts are
See Chesler v. Derby, 4823 CRB-4-04-6 (July 15, 2005), aff'd, 96 Conn. App. 207 (2006), cert. denied, 280 Conn. 909 (2006) (school superintendent collapsed after contentious board meeting).