Oregon appeals says injured school worker can sue

The Oregon Court of Appeals on Thursday reversed an earlier decision that found a school worker’s lawsuit over an injury she suffered while watching children on the playground, ruling that the woman may sue the district over an injury that was deemed not compensable.

Linda Jean Preble was working as an educational assistant for the Centennial School District, No. 287, in Portland, Oregon, in 2013 when a child riding a scooter crashed into her, injuring her knee, according to Preble, v. Centennial School District, No. 287.

The district denied the claim on the ground that hers was “a combined condition resulting from the scooter accident in conjunction with a long-term degenerative knee condition, and the scooter accident that occurred at work was not the major contributing cause of the resulting combined condition.”

In 2016, Ms. Preble sued the district for negligence, more than two years from the date of her injury, which the district argued was time-barred.  A trial court agreed and dismissed the complaint.

The appeals court ruled the trial court applied the wrong statute and that since Ms. Preble’s suit was filed within a legal time frame after she aimed to prove her injury was compensable under comp, the suit can proceed.

The court wrote that “(w)here a worker offers evidence that work was the major contributing cause of a combined condition, but the (administrative law judge) or board finds that evidence less persuasive than the employer’s contrary evidence, the worker has ‘failed to establish that a work-related incident was the major contributing cause of the worker’s injury’… the worker may pursue a civil action” under limitations set by law, of which plaintiff’s case applies.