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Ortman v. Laidlaw Transit West2/20/2002
Argued and submitted March 22, 2001.
Affirmed.
In this workers' compensation case, claimant seeks review of an order of the Workers' Compensation Board holding that her injury was excluded from compensability under ORS 656.005(7)(b)(C), which bars compensation for injuries caused, in major part, by the worker's consumption of alcohol. We review the Board's order for substantial evidence and errors of law, ORS 183.482(7) and (8), and affirm.
The facts are undisputed. In August 1997, claimant was on summer lay-off as a school bus driver for employer. On the date of the injury, claimant had lunch with some friends during which time she drank three 12-ounce glasses of wine. After lunch, at employer's request, she drove her own car to work to pick up information for her bus route for the upcoming school year.
While at employer's office, claimant spoke with two of employer's dispatchers about work-related matters for approximately five to ten minutes. Claimant then returned to her car, walking on a gradually sloped gravel area, where she slid and fell, fracturing her right hip and femur.
At the hospital, before surgery, claimant had a blood test. Dr. Burton, a medical toxicologist, later analyzed the test and determined that claimant's blood alcohol level at the time of the fall was approximately .30.
Claimant filed a workers' compensation claim. Employer did not contest the prima facie compensability of claimant's injury, see ORS 656.005(7)(a) (injury compensable if it arises "out of and in the course of employment"); however, it denied compensability based on the "alcohol defense," codified at ORS 656.005(7)(b)(C).
Claimant requested a hearing and the administrative law judge (ALJ) set the denial aside, finding that the major contributing cause of claimant's fall was loose gravel on a gradually sloped surface and not her alcohol consumption. The Board reversed, finding that claimant's consumption of alcohol was the major contributing cause of her injury.
On judicial review, claimant asserts that the Board erred as a matter of law (1) in concluding that claimant's intoxication was the major contributing cause of her fall without weighing all contributing factors; and (2) in relying on an expert opinion not based on an accurate medical history.
In claimant's first assignment of error, she asserts that the Board failed to weigh non-medical factors in determining the cause of claimant's injury and erroneously determined as a matter of law that claimant's intoxication disqualified her from receiving benefits. Claimant relies on Dietz v. Ramuda, 130 Or App 397, 882 P2d 618 (1994), rev dismissed 321 Or 416 (1995), arguing that the Board erred because it did not consider all relevant contributing factors. In Dietz, we held that when evaluating the major contributing cause of a combined condition under ORS 656.005(7)(a)(B), "the relative contribution of each cause, including the precipitating cause, must be evaluated under the particular circumstances." Id. at 401-02.
Employer argues that its evidence established that the major cause of claimant's injury was claimant's impairment due to alcohol intoxication and that the Board correctly evaluated all the evidence in determining the major contributing cause of the fall. To resolve this assignment we need to construe ORS 656.005(7)(b)(C).
In construing a statute, we first look to its text and context. PGE v. Bureau of Labor & Industries, 317 Or 606, 610-12, 859 P2d 1143 (1993). Because we find that the legislature's intent is apparent from an analysis of the text and context of the statute, we do not proceed beyond the first l
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