SAIF v. Chavez-Cordova

“Personal risks are risks that have no employment connection and that arise from conditions or circumstances that are personal to the worker. Sheldon v. U. S. Bank, 364 Or 831, 834 (2019).

Employer appealed a decision of the Worker’s Compensation Board related to an eye injury that employee sustained during a paid break. Employer assigned error to the board’s finding that employee’s injury arose out of his employment. On appeal, Employer argued that a bottle cap caused the injury and that was a personal risk that employee brought onto the worksite and was not compensable under ORS 656.005(7)(a). The employee argued that the risk of the beverage cap exploding into his eye was not created by him, and was not a personal or inherent risk of work, but rather a neutral risk. “Personal risks are risks that have no employment connection and that arise from conditions or circumstances that are personal to the worker. Sheldon v. U. S. Bank, 364 Or 831, 834 (2019). The Court held that the record lacked evidence to determine the cause of the exploding beverage and therefore the risk had to be categorized as a “neutral risk.” Furhter, the Court held that an injury that arose from a neutral risk may be compensable when the conditions of the work environment put the employee there to be injured. Here, the employee was required to take paid breaks, on site, and was not provided anything to drink by the employer which made the risk a feature of employment. Affirmed.