Liberty Northwest Insurance v. Nemecek

Employer seeks review of an order of the Workers’ Compensation Board affirming and adopting the referee’s order, which concluded that claimant’s occupational disease claim was compensable, because her work was a material contributing cause of the condition. Employer asserts that the Board relied on an erroneous interpretation of ORS 656.802. Employer is correct. We recently decided that the 1987 legislature did not intend to change the major contributing cause standard. Aetna Casualty Co. v. Aschbacher, 107 Or App 494, 812 P2d 844 (1991).

Although the referee’s opinion suggested that one of…