Minor v. SAIF Corp. (In re Minor)

415 P.3d 1107, 290 Or. App. 537
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedFebruary 28, 2018
DocketA160331
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 415 P.3d 1107 (Minor v. SAIF Corp. (In re Minor)) 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
Minor v. SAIF Corp. (In re Minor), 415 P.3d 1107, 290 Or. App. 537 (Or. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

DEHOOG, P.J.

*538Claimant, a 9-1-1 dispatcher, seeks judicial review of an order of the Workers' Compensation Board that upheld the denial of her occupational disease claim for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The board found that claimant had failed to prove that her cognizable employment conditions were the major contributing cause of her PTSD. Claimant argues that the board had no grounds on which to reject the opinion of claimant's psychiatrist and that, as a result, the board's order is not supported by substantial evidence or substantial reason. We conclude that the board's order lacks substantial reason to support its finding that the psychiatrist's opinion was unreliable and, accordingly, reverse and remand.

*1109The applicable law is not in dispute. A claimant bears the burden of proving that an injury or occupational disease is compensable. ORS 656.266(1). Specific to occupational disease claims, the claimant "must prove that employment conditions were the major contributing cause of the disease." ORS 656.802(2)(a). Mental disorder claims are subject to additional requirements:

"(3) Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, a mental disorder is not compensable under this chapter unless the worker establishes all of the following:
"(a) The employment conditions producing the mental disorder exist in a real and objective sense.
"(b) The employment conditions producing the mental disorder are conditions other than conditions generally inherent in every working situation or reasonable disciplinary, corrective or job performance evaluation actions by the employer, or cessation of employment or employment decisions attendant upon ordinary business or financial cycles.
"(c) There is a diagnosis of a mental or emotional disorder which is generally recognized in the medical or psychological community.
"(d) There is clear and convincing evidence that the mental disorder arose out of and in the course of employment."

ORS 656.802(3).

*539We take the following historical and procedural facts from the board's order and underlying record. Coos County (employer) employed claimant for 28 years as a 9-1-1 dispatcher. In 1996, claimant filed a workers' compensation claim for anxiety and depression that she attributed to an incident in which she had dispatched officers and a suspect had been shot. Claimant and employer's insurer resolved that claim through a disputed claim settlement (DCS). Then, in 2009, claimant sought treatment for depression and told her doctor that she was "under a lot of stress at work." Finally, in December 2012, claimant began seeing a psychiatrist, Dr. Reagan, who subsequently diagnosed claimant with PTSD and other emotional disorders. According to Reagan's intake notes, claimant reported that she was experiencing a number of mental and physical symptoms, many of which had begun after the 1996 shooting. Claimant also reported feeling "singled out" by her supervisor, and Reagan's subsequent chart notes indicated that claimant continued to complain of "work stress," along with various specific symptoms. Reagan's chart notes from January 2013 specifically noted that claimant had reported two sources of nonwork stress: caring for her terminally ill husband and financial difficulties.

In January 2014, claimant received a letter of reprimand from her supervisor for an incident in which she had failed to dispatch the fire department according to policy. Claimant saw Reagan the next month, after which Reagan wrote: "Work stress worsening. Written up. Possibly fired. *** PTSD nightmares worse. Reoccurring thoughts worse." (Uppercase omitted.) Following that February 2014 appointment, Reagan sent a letter to employer excusing claimant from work due to "work stress." In response to Reagan's letter, claimant's supervisor submitted an 801 claim form on claimant's behalf and listed "work related stress" as claimant's illness or injury.1 Although Reagan's letter did not specifically identify claimant's condition as PTSD, the parties and the board have subsequently treated her compensation claim as one for that particular disorder.

*540A second psychiatrist, Dr. Telew, evaluated claimant at the request of SAIF, employer's insurer. Telew diagnosed major depressive disorder but disagreed that claimant had PTSD, writing:

"The worker clearly has a stressful job being a 911 dispatcher, but I saw absolutely no evidence that she developed definitive posttraumatic stress disorder. She complains of anxiety and nightmares that have been present for many years, but I question the accuracy of her report. Simply having anxiety and nightmares does not qualify for a diagnosis of PTSD. In the interview today, she denied the full spectrum *1110of symptomatology that would be consistent with a PTSD diagnosis."

Other than that general reference to "symptomology * * * consistent with a PTSD diagnosis," Telew did not discuss the symptoms or diagnostic criteria for PTSD or explain why, in his view, claimant's condition failed to satisfy specific criteria. Instead, Telew explained that he found claimant to be "an extremely poor historian." According to his report, when he "asked [claimant] about the traumatic events that caused her psychiatric difficulties," she "described several events, but they were all vague descriptions with little detail and she could not remember much of the incidents." In addition, Telew wrote that claimant "could not remember various parts of her history, * * * either minimized or denied past psychiatric problems[,] * * * [and] repeatedly denied having any outside stressors in her life" until Telew asked about specific information already in claimant's records, such as her husband's illness.

SAIF denied the claim after reviewing Telew's report, and claimant requested a hearing before the board.

Claimant submitted Reagan's opinion through a concurrence letter that her attorney had written and Reagan had signed, indicating that it "accurately summarize[d their] discussion and [Reagan's] medical opinions about [claimant] and her mental disorder." According to the letter, Reagan had been provided with "a complete copy of the Workers' Compensation Board hearing exhibits," including Telew's report.2 Reagan believed that he had "a materially *541complete and accurate history" based on what claimant had told him "and from the medical records and hearing exhibits" that he had read.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Dean v. Multnomah County
Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2026
Sullivan v. SAIF
510 P.3d 255 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2022)
Rinne v. Psychiatric Sec. Review Bd.
443 P.3d 731 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2019)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
415 P.3d 1107, 290 Or. App. 537, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/minor-v-saif-corp-in-re-minor-orctapp-2018.