Ahlberg v. SAIF Corp.

Claimant seeks review of an order of the Workers’ Compensation Board upholding SAIF’s denial of claimant’s occupational disease claim for hearing loss on the ground that, by operation of claim preclusion, a previous unappealed denial of a claim for the same condition caused the hearing loss as it existed at the time of denial to become a noncompensable preexisting condition for purposes of the present claim. Because the board determined that claimant’s previous work exposure could not be considered and that his subsequent work exposure was not the major contributing cause of his current…