Bales v. State Accident Insurance Fund Corp.

The issue is whether the opinion evidence of an expert that a claimant’s heart attack was not caused by his job activity should be given “less weight,” as a matter of law, because the expert belongs to a school of medical thought that holds that stress does not cause heart attacks. In this case, the Court of Appeals, Bales v. SAIF, 57 Or App 621, 626, 646 P2d 83 (1982), held that the opinion should be given less weight, relying upon what this court said in Clayton v. Compensation Department, 253 Or 397, 454 P2d 628 (1969). We quote from the Court of Appeals decision:

“The Supreme Court has…