State High Court Backs Disabled Worker

A divided Idaho Supreme Court said a Pocatello sanitation employee whose kidneys failed in 1997 two days after being given pain medication at work is entitled to worker’s compensation.

The high court’s 3-2 opinion issued Friday reversed the Idaho Industrial Commission’s conclusion that Bart Jensen had failed to establish that his renal failure was caused by taking the Pain-Off tablets his supervisor provided him.

Justice Wayne Kidwell cited the testimony of a physician who did “not know of anything that would be higher” on his list of potential causes for Jensen’s injury.

The Industrial Commission’s finding relied on the same doctor’s refusal to say with a reasonable degree of medical probability that Jensen’s kidney failure was caused either by the Pain-Off or exposure to solvent at work.

Also on Friday, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Idaho law requires “marriage settlement agreements” to be in writing.

The high court upheld a Bonneville County Magistrate Court decision that an oral settlement agreement between Larry and Deborah Stevens was unenforceable because it was only recorded on audio tape.

Larry Stevens had argued that Idaho law requiring written settlements only applied to prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, not to agreements reached between married couples in contemplation of divorce.