Safeway Stores, Inc. v. Martinez

243 P.3d 1203, 239 Or. App. 224
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedDecember 1, 2010
Docket0700852 A139838
StatusPublished

This text of 243 P.3d 1203 (Safeway Stores, Inc. v. Martinez) 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
Safeway Stores, Inc. v. Martinez, 243 P.3d 1203, 239 Or. App. 224 (Or. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

243 P.3d 1203 (2010)
239 Or. App. 224

In the Matter of the Compensation of Anita M. Martinez, Claimant.
SAFEWAY STORES, INC., Petitioner,
v.
Anita M. MARTINEZ, Respondent.

0700852; A139838.

Court of Appeals of Oregon.

Argued and Submitted January 19, 2010.
Decided December 1, 2010.

*1204 Howard R. Nielsen, Beaverton, argued the cause for petitioner. On the briefs were Courtney C. Kreutz and Radler, Bohy & Replogle, LLP.

John M. Oswald, Portland, argued the cause for respondent. With him on the brief was Bottini, Bottini & Oswald, PC.

Before WOLLHEIM, Presiding Judge, and SERCOMBE, Judge, and CARSON, Senior Judge.

WOLLHEIM, P.J.

Employer petitions for judicial review of a Workers' Compensation Board order directing employer to pay claimant temporary partial disability benefits and not reduce those payments by the amount of short-term disability benefit payments that it made to claimant. We review the board's order for errors of law, ORS 656.298(7); ORS 183.482(8), and affirm.

The relevant facts are not in dispute, and we state them consistently with the board's findings. On April 7, 2005, claimant suffered a compensable knee injury that required surgery. Following the operation, claimant's surgeon released claimant to modified work, and claimant returned to modified work the first week of September 2005. Claimant received temporary partial disability benefits based on the difference between her pre-injury wages and the wages she earned at modified work. Less than two weeks later, on September 10, 2005, claimant suffered a heart attack. Because of the heart attack, claimant was unable to work until October 31, 2005, when she returned to modified work.

*1205 The dispute in this case arises because claimant simultaneously collected temporary disability benefits and short-term disability benefits for her on-the-job knee injury and short-term disability benefits for her off-the-job heart attack. For context, we begin with a description of the benefits claimant received.

Claimant received payments under a short-term disability plan for the wages she lost due to her heart attack between September 2005 and January 2006. The benefits were provided under an income protection plan sponsored by employer without contribution from claimant. The plan provides that, in the event that an off-the-job sickness or injury prevents the worker from working for a period of time, the plan replaces a portion of the worker's income. The plan pays 66 and two-thirds percent of the worker's weekly earnings. It expressly excludes benefits for disabilities due to an occupational sickness or injury. As to sick leave, the plan provides that short-term disability benefits will not be reduced by sick leave payments that a worker receives, and allows a worker to use accumulated sick leave to supplement the short-term disability benefit up to 100 percent of the worker's pay.

Next, we turn to the payment of temporary partial disability payments under the Workers' Compensation Law. In the event that a worker's disability is or becomes partial, the worker is entitled to temporary partial disability benefits proportionate to the worker's lost wages. Those benefits are calculated by subtracting the wages the worker earns, or is able to earn, from the wages used to calculate temporary total disability. ORS 656.212(2); Stone Forest Industries, Inc. v. Bowler, 147 Or.App. 81, 84, 934 P.2d 1138 (1997). Thus, calculation of temporary partial disability benefits requires a determination of the wages that the worker earns or is able to earn while partially disabled.

Here, employer concluded that the short-term disability benefits that claimant received reduce the temporary partial disability benefits to which claimant is entitled. Accordingly, employer paid claimant a reduced amount of temporary partial disability. Claimant disagreed and requested a hearing. She argued that employer could not reduce her partial disability benefits by the amount of short-term disability benefits that she received. Employer argued that the reduction was mandated for two reasons: (1) short-term disability benefits are a "similar advantage" to board, rent, housing, or lodging and are therefore "wages" as defined by ORS 656.005(29); or, alternatively, (2) short-term disability benefits are analogous to sick leave payments and are therefore "post-injury wages" under OAR XXX-XXX-XXXX(10).[1]

The Administrative Law Judge agreed with claimant and ordered employer to pay claimant temporary partial disability benefits without reducing those benefits by the amount of short-term disability benefits claimant received. Employer requested review by the board, and the board affirmed.

The board adopted the ALJ's reasoning that short-term disability benefits are not wages under ORS 656.005(29) because short-term disability benefits are not "the same kind of remuneration as `board, rent, housing, and lodging,'" as provided by the statute. The board also concluded that short term disability benefits are not post-injury wages under OAR XXX-XXX-XXXX(10), reasoning that employer distinguished between sick leave payments and short-term disability payments, that employer made short term disability payments even after claimant exhausted her sick leave, and that the short term disability plan distinguished between short-term disability and sick leave by describing accumulated sick leave as a separate supplement to the short-term disability benefit.

On judicial review, the parties repeat their arguments. We begin with employer's argument that short-term disability benefits *1206 are "wages" under ORS 656.005(29). We examine the text of that statute in context and any helpful legislative history offered by the parties. State v. Gaines, 346 Or. 160, 171-72, 206 P.3d 1042 (2009); PGE v. Bureau of Labor and Industries, 317 Or. 606, 610-12, 859 P.2d 1143 (1993). Our paramount goal in interpreting a statute is to discern the legislature's intent, and the most persuasive evidence of the legislature's intent is the words the legislature used. Gaines, 346 Or. at 171, 206 P.3d 1042.

Accordingly, we begin with the statutory definition of "wages":

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Related

State v. Gaines
206 P.3d 1042 (Oregon Supreme Court, 2009)
Tye v. McFetridge
149 P.3d 1111 (Oregon Supreme Court, 2006)
Stone Forest Industries, Inc. v. Bowler
934 P.2d 1138 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1997)
State v. Kurtz
237 P.3d 221 (Oregon Supreme Court, 2010)
Safeway Stores, Inc. v. Martinez
243 P.3d 1203 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2010)
State v. Kurtz
228 P.3d 583 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2010)
Portland General Electric Co. v. Bureau of Labor & Industries
859 P.2d 1143 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1993)
Funkhouser v. WELLS FARGO CORP.
197 P.3d 592 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2008)
Abu-Adas v. Employment Department, Food Employers, Inc.
940 P.2d 1219 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1997)

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Bluebook (online)
243 P.3d 1203, 239 Or. App. 224, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/safeway-stores-inc-v-martinez-orctapp-2010.