The Supreme Court affirmed the Appellate Court’s reversal of the trial commissioner in Dinuzzo v. Dan Perkins Chevrolet Geo, Inc.

The Supreme Court affirmed the Appellate Court’s reversal of the trial commissioner in Dinuzzo v. Dan Perkins Chevrolet Geo, Inc., et al released November 10, 2009. The case should serve as a strong statement that the claimant must establish all underlying facts necessary to support a medical opinion on causation of injury. A doctor’s conclusionary opinion will not suffice.

In Dinuzzo the claimant was alleged to have died due to a heart attack brought on by inactivity following a back injury. The evidentiary record failed to reveal a diagnosis of atherosclerotic heart disease or witnesses to describe heart attack symptoms. To further confound the expert there was evidence that the claimant’s symptoms could have been consistent with interferon usage. There was no evidence that the inability to exercise was as a result of the back injury.

The Court noted that no proper inference of a causal relationship could be drawn from the facts produced and that the claimant therefore had failed to meet his burden of proof.