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Buckley v. Delaware Valley Rehabilitation Services Inc.5/1/1998
Court Below: Superior Court of the State of Delaware in and for New Castle County
C.A. No. 97A-01-012-NAB
Submitted: February 3, 1998
Upon appeal from Superior Court. Affirmed.
This appeal challenges a decision of the Industrial Accident Board (the "Board") denying a petition for workers' compensation. Superior Court granted the employer's motion to affirm the Board's judgment. Following oral argument, we remanded the case to the Superior Court for clarification of the factual record. Having now received these supplemental findings, we reach the merits of the appeal. The Board found that the claimant failed to establish compensability, as she could not prove that three days of incapacity resulted from a work-related injury.
Our review of the Board's findings is deferential. Where the Board correctly interprets and applies the Workers' Compensation Act, our sole concern is whether substantial evidence in the record supports the Board's factual Conclusions. With this in mind, we see no reason to reverse the denial of compensation in this case. We agree with the Superior Court that the Board's finding is supported factually and legally. Accordingly, we affirm.
Facts and Procedural History
The injury for which the claimant seeks compensation resulted from a simple slip-and-fall. The accident took place on Thursday, October 20, 1994, at a time when Dianne S. Buckley worked as a senior consultant for Delaware Valley Rehabilitation Services, Inc. ("DVRS"). On that day, while performing an on-site job analysis for DVRS, Buckley stepped awkwardly off a curb and injured herself. She immediately felt pain in her left hip and groin, and returned home. Buckley stayed home from work on Friday, October 21, and throughout the ensuing weekend. To this extent, the facts are undisputed.
On November 21, 1995, Buckley filed with the Board a petition for compensation due. At the hearing on her petition, Buckley sought to establish compensability by proving that her work-related injury resulted in three days of incapacity, as required by Delaware's workers' compensation regime. The parties besieged the Board with conflicting evidence regarding the gravity of Buckley's injury and the extent of its debilitating effects. According to Buckley, the injury left her unable to work during the following periods: the four days immediately following her accident; a full week in October, 1994, during which time she allegedly performed some of her duties from home; and, because of recurring symptoms, at various other times later in 1994 and early in 1995. DVRS countered with evidence that: Buckley was exaggerating the amount of time she was absent from work due to her injury; even while working at home, she was able to perform substantially all of her normal duties; and her complaints of lingering pain and discomfort from the injury were disingenuous.
On September 10, 1996, the Board rejected Buckley's request for compensation. Characterizing her testimony as "vague[,] . . . self-serving and contrived, " the Board found that Buckley failed to prove the necessary three days of incapacity. While acknowledging that Buckley spent some time working from home after her injury, the Board accepted her employer's claim that, even from home, Buckley was capable of performing her job and earning full wages. Likewise, the Board accepted the testimony of medical experts who argued that whatever time Buckley missed from work after October, 1994 was due to an unrelated injury. In the face of conflicting factual claims, the Board accepted as the more credible the employer's account of the injury and its effects.
Buckley appealed-
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