Durham v. Chrysler Corp.

Plaintiff, Gladys Durham, appeals the Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board’s reversal of a hearing referee’s open award of workers’ compensation benefits and medical expenses.

Plaintiff was first employed by defendant Chrysler Corporation in 1970. In 1971 or 1972, she was assigned to the valve lock operation on a production line assembling engine heads. This job required her to raise both hands and press two buttons above her head more than 400 times each hour. After several months on that assignment, she began to experience pain in her shoulders, arms, hands, neck and chest; she also began to…