Hamel v. Tri Metropolitan Transportation District

The issue in this case is whether claimant has established the compensability of a herniated disc injury. Claimant appeals from a determination by the Workers’ Compensation Board affirming the referee, who found that claimant had failed to prove his claim.1 On de novo review, we reverse and remand.

Claimant is a bus driver, age 37 at time of hearing, who contends that he ruptured a disc while driving a city bus on November 21, 1978. Claimant had returned from a ten-day vacation and reported for work November 20. He spent approximately two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon…