Opinion
80-08650; CA A27041
On petitioner's reconsideration filed December 22, 1983 Reconsideration granted November 23, 1984
Reversed March 7, 1984
Judicial Review from Workers' Compensation Board.
Bruce K. Posey, Portland, for petition.
Before Buttler, Presiding Judge, and Warren and Rossman, Judges.
PER CURIAM
Petition for reconsideration granted; former decision withdrawn; reversed.
Pacific Northwest Bell Telephone Company (Bell) has petitioned for reconsideration of our decision, 65 Or. App. 814, 671 P.2d 1211 (1983), affirming the Board's and the referee's decisions holding that claimant had a compensable claim. We grant the petition in the light of McGarrah v. SAIF, 296 Or. 145, 675 P.2d 159 (1983).
We are now convinced that the claim is not compensable. It is unclear from the evidence whether the stress that claimant attributed to her work was real, as required by McGarrah, or was merely based on her unfounded perceptions. We also conclude that, regardless of whether the work-related stress was real or merely perceived, it was not the major contributing cause of claimant's mental disability. Claimant had a strong susceptibility to tension arising out of her family relationships and was involved in several family-related crises during her employment at Bell. It was, in fact, the most recent of those crises, the death of her aunt, that precipitated an extended unauthorized leave of absence from Bell, resulting in her termination for voluntary job abandonment. The medical evidence also establishes that claimant's employment was not the major contributing cause of her mental disorder. Accordingly, her claim is not compensable. McGarrah v. SAIF, supra; SAIF v. Gygi, 55 Or. App. 570, 639 P.2d 655, rev den 292 Or. 825 (1982).
Petition for reconsideration granted; former decision withdrawn; reversed.