Bayer v. Goldschmidt

521 P.2d 1084, 17 Or. App. 334, 1974 Ore. App. LEXIS 1088
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedMay 6, 1974
DocketNo. 388986
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 521 P.2d 1084 (Bayer v. Goldschmidt) 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
Bayer v. Goldschmidt, 521 P.2d 1084, 17 Or. App. 334, 1974 Ore. App. LEXIS 1088 (Or. Ct. App. 1974).

Opinions

LANGTRY, P. J.

Plaintiff was injured in October 1969 while in the performance of his duties as a patrolman for the City of Portland Police Department, and received disability benefits thereafter from the Portland Fire and Police Disability and Retirement Fund. (Charter, City of Portland, Oregon, ch 5.) Defendants are members of the Board of Trustees of the Fund. Plaintiff brought this writ of review proceeding to challenge an order of the Board which terminated his disability benefits as of January 11, 1973.

When this proceeding started, the writ of review statutes, ORS 34.010-34.100, provided that the writ would be allowed only where the inferior tribunal acted erroneously, arbitrarily or in excess of its jurisdiction. ORS 34.040. No claim is made that the Board acted erroneously, i.e., made procedural errors, or exceeded its jurisdiction. See Baker v. Steele et al, 229 Or 498, [336]*336501, 366 P2d 726 (1961); Bechtold et al. v. Wilson et al., 182 Or 360, 186 P2d 525, 187 P2d 675 (1947). Tims, the sole question is whether the Board’s action was arbitrary. The 1973 legislature expanded the scope of judicial review under writ of review proceedings. (Oregon Laws 1973, ch 561, § 1.) This case arose before the new law became effective and different questions that might be raised under such new law are not presented here.

Chronologically, the sequence of events leading to this appeal were as follows.

Plaintiff was examined by Dr. Langston on June 14, 1972, pursuant to the Board’s annual review of disability cases. Inter alia, Dr. Langston’s report stated:

“Mr. Bayer appears to have had a ruptured disc at C6-C7 level and subsequently a laminectomy ^ ^
“This man could easily perform many of the duties required in police work but the original statement still holds, that if he were required to engage in violent physical activity he would be more susceptible to injury than if he had not had the laminectomy and the ruptured cervical disc.
“It appears to this examiner that if a clarification as to criteria of acceptance following injury and disability of policemen and firemen were made the confusion that exists in this case would not be.”

After the receipt of Dr. Langston’s report the Board discussed the medical report and took action terminating plaintiff’s benefits because it decided he could return to active duty.

In response to the Board’s action terminating his service-connected disability benefits, plaintiff made a written request that the Board review its action. Pur[337]*337suant to charter § 5-107 (see Evans v. Schrunk, 4 Or App 437, 440-42, 479 P2d 1008 (1971) for text of applicable charter provisions) a three-doctor panel was convened to examine plaintiff.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
521 P.2d 1084, 17 Or. App. 334, 1974 Ore. App. LEXIS 1088, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bayer-v-goldschmidt-orctapp-1974.