McKeever Custom Cabinets v. Smith

UHLENHOPP, Justice.

The principal question in this appeal is whether a workers’ compensation claim by employee Keith Allen Smith is barred by time limitations.

Smith worked as a cabinet maker and installer for employer McKeever Custom Cabinets from April 1978 to August 1980 and from March to May 1981. The work involved considerable hammering as well as vibrations from pneumatic and electrical tools such as sanders. Between Smith’s two periods of employment by McKeever, Smith worked on a farm in Minnesota and for a cabinet maker in Oklahoma.

In November 1978 a falling sheet of wood in McKeever’s…