Case Title: State Ex Rel. Cady v. Allen

Citation: 460 P.2d 1017

Docket Number: 

State: oregon

Court: Oregon Supreme Court

Date: 1969-11-19T00:00:00Z

Document:
460 P.2d 1017 (1969)
STATE of Oregon ex rel. Marion E. Cady, James Redman and William A. Callahan, As Members of the Workmen's Compensation Board, and the State Compensation Department, Plaintiffs,
v.
The Honorable Edwin E. ALLEN, Judge of the Circuit Court of the State of Oregon for Lane County, Defendant.

Supreme Court of Oregon, In Banc.
Argued and Submitted October 6, 1969.
Decided November 19, 1969.
Peter S. Herman, Asst. Atty. Gen., Salem, argued the cause for plaintiffs. With him on the brief was Robert Y. Thornton, Atty. Gen.
E.B. Sahlstrom, Eugene, and William A. Babcock, Springfield, argued the cause for defendant. On the briefs were Sahlstrom & Starr, Eugene, and Babcock & Ackerman, Springfield.
Argued and Submitted on Demurrer to Alternative Writ October 6, 1969.
McALLISTER, Justice.
This is an original proceeding in which this court issued an alternative writ of mandamus directed to the defendant commanding that he vacate two orders entered by him in a case pending before him or show cause why he had not done so. The defendant demurred to the alternative writ and the question before us is whether the facts stated in the writ entitle petitioners to a peremptory writ.
On September 2, 1966, Calvin F. Sutton, a workman covered under the Workmen's Compensation Law, sustained an accidental injury in the course of his employment and submitted a claim to the State Compensation Department.
On September 18, 1967, the Workmen's Compensation Board, through its Closing and Evaluation Division, determined that Sutton had suffered a compensable injury and granted him an award for permanent partial disability equal to 15 per cent loss *1018 of an arm due to an aggravation of a pre-existing condition. Sutton was dissatisfied with the award and asked for a hearing. A hearing was held and thereafter on May 29, 1968, Norman F. Kelley, a hearing officer for the Workmen's Compensation Board, entered his opinion and order directing that Sutton be granted an additional award equal to 20 per cent loss of an arm, making a total award for permanent partial disability equal to 35 per cent loss of an arm.
Thereafter the State Compensation Department requested the Workmen's Compensation Board to review the order of the Hearing Officer, Norman F. Kelley. On September 9, 1968, the Workmen's Compensation Board entered an order reversing the award of Hearing Officer Kelley and reinstating the original award equal to 15 per cent loss of an arm.
Thereafter Sutton appealed to the Circuit Court for Lane County from the order of the Workmen's Compensation Board. Thereafter on September 24, 1968, the Workmen's Compensation Board transmitted to the Circuit Court for Lane County the record of proceedings before the Workmen's Compensation Board.
The circuit court held a hearing, after which it entered an order containing the following recital of the reasons for the entry thereof:
In accordance with the foregoing findings the court ordered as follows:
In Romero v. State Compensation Department, 86 Or.Adv.Sh. 815, 440 P.2d 866, 868 (1968), the issue was the degree of the claimant's disability. This court reversed a circuit court judgment which increased the compensation award and reinstated the award of the Workmen's Compensation Board. In so doing, we said:
Defendant contends (1) that the circuit court is also required to review the record de novo, (2) that our decision in Romero requires him "to give some evidentiary weight" to the administrative determinations, and (3) that he is entitled to know the degree of expertise possessed by the various administrative personnel so that he can decide which of the administrative opinions is entitled to the most weight.
Defendant misconstrues our opinion. We did not imply that the administrative findings were entitled to "evidentiary weight." We held merely that in reviewing de novo the degree of disability the reviewing court is entitled to take into account "the administrative agency's expertise which develops out of dealing with hundreds of similar cases." The reviewing court must decide in each case to what extent it will be persuaded by the administrative findings. Lucke v. State Comp. Dept., Or., 461 P.2d 269, decided November 19, 1969.
We further point out that the expertise about which we wrote in Romero was not the experience of any individual administrative officer, but the expertise of the administrative agency as a whole. In Ryf v. Hoffman Construction Company, Or., 459 P.2d 991, decided October 22, 1969, we said:
The order of defendant requiring the hearing officer to investigate and report in regard to the training, experience, qualifications and expertise of the administrative *1020 personnel designated in the orders of the defendant would be of no value and would necessarily interfere with and impair the efficiency and integrity of the agency involved. We therefore find it necessary to issue a peremptory writ.
It is so ordered.