Oregon Occupational Safety & Health Division v. CBI Services, Inc.

ORS 654.086(2) provides that an employer is not liable for a “serious” violation of the Oregon Safe Employment Act (OSEA) if “the employer did not, and could not with the exercise of reasonable diligence, know of the presence of the violation.” At issue in this case is what the statute means when it says that an employer “could not with the exercise of reasonable diligence know” of a violation. The Court of Appeals held that the statutory phrase refers not to whether an employer “could” know — in the sense of being capable of knowing — of the violation; rather, the phrase refers to whether,…