Sacred Heart Medical Center V. Carrado

The petitioner filed a claim with the Department of Labor and Industries (Department), alleging that she had contracted hepatitis as a result of her employment as a registered nurse in an intensive care unit at the respondent medical center. When the Department rejected her claim, she appealed to the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals (Board). A hearing examiner heard the petitioner's evidence, consisting of her testimony and that of two medical witnesses, and granted the respondent's motion to dismiss, ruling that the petitioner had not proved by a preponderance of the evidence that the disease from which she suffered rose naturally and proximately out of her employment. Reviewing that ruling, the Board reversed and allowed the claim. Upon the respondent's appeal to the Superior  Court, the jury upheld the decision of the Board. A further appeal to the Court of Appeals, Division Three, resulted in a reversal of the judgment on the verdict. 20 Wash. App. 285, 579 P.2d 412 (1978).