Larry Hampton, Respondent v. Big Boy Steel Erection, Appellant, Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, Insurer…

Summary

The Supreme Court of Missouri affirmed the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission's final award of permanent and total disability benefits to an ironworker whose workplace fall aggravated previously asymptomatic degenerative disc disease. The court held that judicial review of such an award requires only a single determination whether, considering the whole record, sufficient competent and substantial evidence supports it — an award contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence fails that test. Because nothing in Mo. Const. art. V, sec. 18 or section 287.495.1 requires viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the award, the court abandoned the two-step Davis approach and overruled every case listed in its appendix to the extent it held otherwise. The court also reaffirmed that a claimant's credible testimony about work-related functioning can by itself constitute competent and substantial evidence of total disability.