Judge May Infer Cause of Injury Was Pre-existing

The Tennessee Special Workers' Compensation Appeals Panel applied the "could have" rule of causation in affirming a trial court's decision to deny benefits to a sanitation worker with a painful wrist. The Knoxville-based appellate court in Jump v. C & M Disposal, No. E2005-02629-WC-R3-CV (7/28/06), explained the "could have" rule as: "A court may predicate an award on medical evidence that a certain event could have caused an injury provided the court has heard other evidence from which it may reasonably be inferred the incident was in fact the cause of the injury." The rule applied to...