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Emory Universityv.Duval

CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
Docket No.A14A2270
DecidedFebruary 10, 2015
Reporter330 Ga. App. 663; 768 S.E.2d 832
JudgesCourt of Appeals of Georgia, Fourth Division; Presiding Judge Doyle and Judges Miller and Dillard
Tags
CivilAdministrative LawCivil ProcedureStandard of ReviewEvidenceStatutory InterpretationReversal
Case Summary

Sandra Stennett Duval, a nurse at Emory University Hospital, suffered a compensable right-shoulder injury while lifting a patient. After surgery for a separate left-shoulder condition, she developed renewed right-shoulder symptoms and sought workers’ compensation benefits for additional treatment and disability. An administrative-law judge awarded benefits, but the State Board of Workers’ Compensation reversed after crediting evidence that the original injury had resolved and the later condition was unrelated. The superior court reversed the Board and remanded for an explanation of why it rejected the treating physician’s evidence. The Court of Appeals of Georgia held that the superior court applied the wrong standard of review. The Board was authorized to weigh conflicting evidence, assess credibility, and substitute its own findings for those of the administrative-law judge; a reviewing court could not reweigh that evidence and had to affirm if any record evidence supported the Board’s decision. Because the record supported the Board’s findings, the appellate court reversed the superior court’s judgment.

Opinion

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