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Robinson v. Nabisco9/28/2000
. Under that statute, the first question is whether the claim concerns an accidental injury that "aris out of and in the course of employment * * *." If the answer to that question is "yes," then the injury is compensable. ORS 656.005(7)(a)(A) and (B) state the bases, which the statute describes as "limitations," for determining the compensability of injuries and diseases denominated as "consequential" and "combined" conditions. Under the limitation that employer asserts is pertinent here, ORS 656.005(7)(a)(A), no injury or disease is "compensable as a consequence of a compensable injury" unless the compensable injury is the "major contributing cause" of the consequential condition. The phrase "compensable as a consequence of a compensable injury" indicates that the major contributing cause standard in that limitation applies only if the compensability determination depends on a showing that the injury or disease is a consequence of a compensable condition.
Following the analytical path that the text of ORS 656.005(7)(a) describes, we first inquire under that statute whether claimant's injury "aris out of and in the course of" her employment. This court views the two prongs of that compensability test as two parts of a unitary "work-connection" inquiry that asks whether the relationship between the injury and the employment is sufficiently close that the injury should be compensable. Krushwitz v. McDonald's Restaurants, 323 Or 520, 526, 919 P2d 465 (1996); see also ORS 656.012(1)(c) (stating legislative finding that "those injuries that bear a sufficient relationship to employment * * * merit incorporation of their costs into the stream of commerce"). Thus, although the "arising out of" and "in the course of" prongs provide guidance, the unitary work-connection test does not supply a mechanical formula for determining whether an injury is compensable. We evaluate those factors in each case to determine whether the circumstances of a claimant's injuries are sufficiently connected to employment to be compensable. As this court stated in Rogers v. SAIF, 289 Or 633, 643, 616 P2d 485 (1980) quoting Allen v. SAIF, 29 Or App 631, 633-34, 564 P2d 1086 (1977):
"'The statutory phrase "arising out of and in the course of employment" must be applied in each case so as to best effectuate the socio-economic purpose of the Worker's Compensation Act: the financial protection of the worker and his/her family from poverty due to injury incurred in production, regardless of fault, as an inherent cost of the product to the consumer. 1 Larson, Workmen's Compensation Law ยง 2.20. Various concepts have arisen from attempts to rationalize that purpose, e.g., the going and coming rule, special errands, lunch hour cases, dual purpose trips, impedimenta of employment, horseplay, etc. Each is helpful for conceptualization and indexing, but there is no formula for decision. Etchison v. SAIF, 8 Or App 395, 398, 494 P2d 455 (1972). Rather, in each case, every pertinent factor must be considered as a part of the whole. It is the basic purpose of the Act which gives weight to particular facts and direction to the analysis of whether an injury arises out of and in the course of employment.'"
Claimant's injury must satisfy both prongs of the work-connection test to some degree; neither is dispositive. Krushwitz, 323 Or at 531. However, if many facts support one element of that test, fewer facts may support the other. Redman Industries, Inc. v. Lang, 326 Or 32, 35, 943 P2d 208 (1997).
This court has explained that the "arising out of" prong of the compensability test in ORS 656.005(7)(a) requires that "some causal link exist" between the worker's injury and his or her employment. Krushwitz, 323 Or at 525-2
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