This appeal arises pursuant to the Texas Workers’ Compensation Act, TEX. LAB. CODE ANN. § 401.001 et seq. (1989 Act). A contested case hearing (CCH) was held on May 10, 2001. The hearing officer determined that the respondent (claimant) sustained a compensable injury on __________, and had disability from this injury from October 24 through November 13, 2000, and then from December 7, 2000, until January 25, 2001.
The appellant (carrier) has appealed and argues evidence that it maintains casts doubt on the claimant’s credibility. There is no response from the claimant.
DECISION
We affirm the hearing officer’s decision.
The hearing officer did not err in finding that the claimant sustained a compensable injury and had disability therefrom. The claimant testified that while working the overnight shift for her employer, she was assigned to move some 13-inch televisions from an upstairs storage floor. She stacked them at the top of a stairwell, and as she picked up the first one to carry down, she lost her footing or slipped while pivoting and banged into the corner of a wall. She felt immediate pain in her back and numbness down her leg, but finished her work shift and waited to speak to the supervisor who worked the regular day shift. While there was conflicting testimony about the claimant’s apparent affects from this, in that she was observed swinging her small two-year-old when the claimant’s mother came to pick her up from work, there was general agreement that the claimant told more than one person about the television incident that she described. Her supervisor asked her to fill out an accident report. The claimant went that day to the emergency room, where she was diagnosed with lumbar sprain and probable herniated lumbar disc. It was noted that she had a history of herniation. The claimant agreed she had had a back injury in February 1998 but that she recovered fully from this. The periods that she sought for disability corresponded to her being off work, then returning to light duty, and then being off work again because of inability to continue with light duty due to pain.
Conflicting testimony and medical evidence are the responsibility of the hearing officer to weigh. The trier of fact may believe all, part, or none of the testimony of any witness. Taylor v. Lewis, 553 S.W.2d 153, 161 (Tex. Civ. App.-Amarillo 1977, writ ref’d n.r.e.). An appeals-level body is not a fact finder and does not normally pass upon the credibility of witnesses or substitute its own judgment for that of the trier of fact, even if the evidence would support a different result. National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania v. Soto, 819 S.W.2d 619, 620 (Tex. App.-El Paso 1991, writ denied); American Motorists Insurance Co. v. Volentine, 867 S.W.2d 170 (Tex. App.-Beaumont 1993, no writ).
As we do not agree that the decision was against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence so as to be manifestly unfair or unjust, we affirm the hearing officer’s decision and order.
Susan M. Kelley – Appeals Judge
CONCUR:
Judy L. S. Barnes – Appeals Judge
Elaine M. Chaney – Appeals Judge