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Three judges from the Oregon Court of Appeals reversed a previous ruling in the case of Lisa R. Fox. The judges were Rex Armstrong, Lynn Nakamoto and James Egan.

(Oregon Judicial Department)

Lisa R. Fox was running late for her 6:30 a.m. shift.

Her employer,

, required that employees show up for work no more than four minutes late. So Fox parked her car in a loading zone, raced into the Portland mail-order pharmacy to clock in at 6:33 a.m., then went back outside to move her car. She was back on the job at 6:36 a.m.

Within two weeks, Kaiser fired Fox. She had worked as a Kaiser pharmacy technician for more than 13 years.

Kaiser also successfully fought to bar Fox from collecting unemployment benefits, on the grounds that she committed time-card fraud and created an “irrevocable breach of trust” with her employer.

That's all according to an Oregon Court of Appeals ruling this week.

A three-judge panel of the appeals court

by the Employment Appeals Board denying Fox unemployment checks, which can range from $126 to $538 a week. And the judges sent Fox’s case back to the board for reconsideration.

Fox, who contacted The Oregonian Friday, said she "feels some peace now," in an email.

"I was not a perfect employee, but was always an honest one," Fox said.

Fox represented herself before the appeals court. She said her acts on Jan. 17. 2013 were “an isolated instance of poor judgment.” The appeals court said that for the board to cast aside her explanation, the board first must consider her “intent.” What's more, the board must determine whether that intent amounted to "a willful or wantonly negligent violation of the standards of behavior which an employer has the right to expect of an employee."

The appeals court decision represents Round 4 for Fox, whose case was first heard by the state

, then an administrative law judge, then the Employment Appeals Board and most recently the Court of Appeals.

The administrative law judge sided with Fox, finding she should receive unemployment because she’d made a snap decision to move her car and had time-management issues because of her attention deficit disorder. The judge also believed Fox’s explanation about troubles she’d had with Kaiser’s time clock in the past: That employees who clocked in couldn’t tell whether they had done so successfully or not.

A Kaiser Permanente spokesman did not return a call in time for comment for this story.

The ruling was made by judges Rex Armstrong, Lynn Nakamoto and James Egan.

-- Aimee Green