Allied Systems Co. v. Nelson

975 P.2d 923, 158 Or. App. 639, 1999 Ore. App. LEXIS 221
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedFebruary 24, 1999
Docket96-04100; CA A99507
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 975 P.2d 923 (Allied Systems Co. v. Nelson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Allied Systems Co. v. Nelson, 975 P.2d 923, 158 Or. App. 639, 1999 Ore. App. LEXIS 221 (Or. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

WOLLHEIM, J.

Employer seeks review of an order of the Workers’ Compensation Board, asserting that the board erred in reversing the administrative law judge (AU) and finding that claimant’s carpal tunnel syndrome is a compensable occupational disease and in assessing a 25 percent penalty for employer’s alleged untimely denial of claimant’s claim. We affirm, without discussion, the Board’s finding that claimant’s condition is work related. We write only to discuss employer’s contention that the Board erred in assessing a penalty.

Claimant, who worked for employer as a secretary, first sought treatment for pain and numbness in both hands in December 1995. She told employer about the problem on December 4, 1995. On December 20, 1995, Dr. Stevens authorized modified work without typing. Employer made some efforts to accommodate that request. On Form 801, which claimant submitted on January 15, 1996, employer was required to indicate the “[d]ate employer first knew of injury or occupational disease,” and employer filled in “12-04-95.” On April 10,1996, employer denied the compensability of claimant’s condition. The Board found that the claim was compensable and that employer had notice of the “claim” in December 1995. The Board further found that employer offered no explanation for the untimeliness of its denial of the claim; accordingly, it assessed a penalty.

ORS 656.005(6) defines a claim as “a written request for compensation from a subject worker or someone on the worker’s behalf, or any compensable injury of which a subject employer has notice or knowledge” (Emphasis added.) In construing the statute, our task is to discern the intent of the legislature by first examining its text and context. PGE v. Bureau of Labor and Industries, 317 Or 606, 859 P2d 1143 (1993). The Supreme Court has said that the definition of “claim” in ORS 656.005(6) refers to two “disjunctive” events: (1) a “written request for compensation” or (2) the employer’s notice or knowledge of a compensable injury. SAIF Corp. v. Allen, 320 Or 192, 201, 881 P2d 773 (1994). Only the employer’s notice of a “claim” triggers the procedures set [642]*642forth in ORS 656.262 for acceptance, denial, and payment of benefits and for the assessment of penalties should the employer improperly process the claim. Thus arises the significance of the Board’s finding that employer had notice of the claim by December 1995.

Employer asserts that the Board could not have meant that by December 1995 employer had notice of the “claim” in the sense of a written request for compensation, because claimant did not indicate in writing that she was seeking compensation until she completed Form 801 in January 1996. Further, employer argues, although employer was aware of claimant’s condition as early as December 4, 1995, it did not have knowledge that the condition was work related as of that date. Therefore, it contends, it did not have notice of the claim in the second sense described in ORS 656.005(6), notice or knowledge of “a compensable injury.”

The outcome of this case depends entirely on the second definition of “claim,” which, in turn, incorporates the term “compensable injury.” ORS 656.005(7)(a) defines a “compensable injury,” in part, as “an accidental injury * * * arising out of and in the course of employment requiring medical services or resulting in disability or death[.]” That definition is applicable unless the context requires otherwise. ORS 656.003. Thus, the second type of claim described in ORS 656.005(6) is an accidental injury arising out of and in the course of the employment of which the employer has notice or knowledge.

For the purpose of the issue in this case, the incorporation of the definition of compensable injury does not lend significantly to the clarity of the statute. The text of the statute, with the definition of compensable injury, still leaves some questions to be resolved. If, as here, the employer challenges the claimant’s contention that the injury is work related, then is the injury of which the employer has notice or knowledge a claim under the second definition of ORS 656.005(6)? Is an injury that is at first denied but ultimately determined through litigation to be compensable a claim under ORS 656.005(6)? The answer to both questions would be “yes,” if guidance is to be taken from the Supreme Court’s recent opinion in Armstrong v. Rogue Federal Credit Union, [643]*643328 Or 154, 969 P2d 382 (1998). There, the court considered whether an employer commits an unlawful employment practice under ORS 659.415 by denying an injured worker’s demand for reinstatement during the pendency of litigation over whether the worker’s injury is compensable. ORS 659.415 provides a right to reinstatement upon demand to a worker who has sustained a “compensable injury.” At the time she demanded reinstatement, Armstrong’s workers’ compensation claim was disputed by the employer. The employer argued that reinstatement is available only to the worker whose injury is in compensable status at the time of the demand for reinstatement. The court applied to ORS 659.415 the definition of “compensable injury” in ORS 656.005(7). The court said:

“Generally, a ‘compensable injury’ is an accidental injury that ‘arises out of and in the course of employment.’ When a worker is injured at work, the injury is a compensable injury under ORS 656.005(7)(a) from the moment of its occurrence, even if the insurer denies that the injury is compensable, and even if the administrative and judicial systems take months or years to determine the validity of the employer’s denial. Nothing in the statutory definition of ‘compensable injury’ in ORS 656.005(7)(a) indicates that the definition refers only to an injury that the Board and the courts, after exhaustion of all legal proceedings, have determined to be work-related.” 328 Or at 159.

The court held that an employer’s obligation to reinstate an injured worker is not contingent on an early determination of compensability.

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Related

Keller v. SAIF Corp.
27 P.3d 1064 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2001)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
975 P.2d 923, 158 Or. App. 639, 1999 Ore. App. LEXIS 221, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/allied-systems-co-v-nelson-orctapp-1999.