Summary
In Palmer, the claimant was injured in a car accident on her way to meet with her attorney and the compensation carrier for a review of her continuing eligibility for compensation benefits.
Summary of this case from Nixon v. D.C. Dept. of Employment ServOpinion
94006.
Decided and Entered: December 18, 2003.
Appeal from a decision of the Workers' Compensation Board, filed August 20, 2002, which ruled that claimant sustained a causally related consequential injury.
Douglas J. Hayden, State Insurance Fund, Liverpool (Susan B. Marris of counsel), for appellants.
Walter L. Terry III, Oneonta, for Mary Palmer, respondent.
Eliot Spitzer, Attorney General, New York City (Claire T. O'Keefe of counsel), for Workers' Compensation Board, respondent.
Before: Mercure, J.P., Spain, Carpinello, Mugglin and Lahtinen, JJ.
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER
In 1991, claimant injured her right knee while working as an aide at a juvenile residential facility, thereafter receiving workers' compensation benefits. A Workers' Compensation Law Judge (hereinafter WCLJ) later amended accident, notice and causal relationship to include consequential depression and injuries to claimant's left knee and back. In June 2001, claimant was classified with a permanent partial disability and her case was closed.
On September 11, 2001, claimant agreed to meet with a representative of the employer's workers' compensation carrier at claimant's attorney's office so that the representative could conduct a routine review of the claim and claimant's continuing entitlement thereto. While en route to the meeting, claimant was involved in a motor vehicle accident, suffering posttraumatic stress disorder and additional injuries to her neck and back. Following a hearing, a WCLJ determined that these injuries were consequential to claimant's compensable injuries and awarded benefits. The Workers' Compensation Board affirmed the WCLJ's decision, prompting this appeal by the employer and the carrier.
On appeal, the employer and carrier argue that the Board's decision represents an arbitrary departure from prior precedent establishing that a claimant may be compensated for a nonwork-related consequential injury only when such injury occurs while en route to obtaining causally related medical treatment (see Matter of Schuyler v. City of Newburgh Fire Dept., 292 A.D.2d 702, 703; Matter of Font v. New York City Bd. of Educ., 170 A.D.2d 928). We cannot agree. It is undisputed that claimant's purpose for traveling to the meeting was wholly related to her claim and, further, that said meeting was scheduled at the carrier's request and for its sole benefit. It is also clear that claimant would not have incurred her injuries had the carrier not requested the meeting. We find that the Board's discussion of these uncontested facts provides the necessary rational basis for its conclusion that claimant's injuries were "sufficiently causally related to the employment by the mere fact that a work-connected injury was the cause of the journey" (Matter of Font v. New York City Bd. of Educ., supra at 929). Contrary to the employer's and carrier's assertions, previous decisions by this Court and the Board regarding the compensability of injuries sustained while en route to receiving medical treatment do not foreclose the Board from considering other compensable scenarios where, as here, compelling factual circumstances warrant (see Matter of Dandola v. New York City Dept. of Corrections, 244 A.D.2d 729; Matter of Turdo v. New York City Dept. of Sanitation, 117 A.D.2d 861, lv denied 68 N.Y.2d 609). Because the Board's decision is supported by substantial evidence, it must be affirmed.
Mercure, J.P., Spain, Carpinello and Mugglin, JJ., concur.
ORDERED that the decision is affirmed, without costs.