A Capehart Scatchard Blog

Tag: Appellate Division

Appellate Division Finds Accident in Pennsylvania Compensable As Petitioner Had Resumed Drive to Customer Location in New Jersey

By on November 6, 2023 in Compensability, NJ Workers' Comp with 0 Comments

Petitioner Mario Pozadas was injured on October 14, 2016.  He was the owner of the respondent Capital Iron Associates, LLC., which specialized in fabricating and installing welding materials.  Earlier in the day he was working on a home renovation project taking place in Hightstown, New Jersey.  Mr. Pozadas drove a flatbed truck carrying several workers […]

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Guidance on Recording Defense Medical Examinations and Having Non-parties Present

One of the most nettlesome questions in New Jersey workers’ compensation is whether a non-party can attend an IME and whether a petitioner or a physician can record a medical examination without the other party’s consent and use it at trial.  It is important to observe that the New Jersey Workers’ Compensation Act provides very […]

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Appellate Division Reverses Judge of Compensation’s Decision That Employment Separation Agreement Constituted a Payment for a Disputed Workers’ Compensation Claim

The case of Donald Servais v. Ocean Wholesale Nursery, LLC., A-2988-20, (App. Div. July 14, 2022) presents an unusual legal issue in workers’ compensation.  The case involved a dispute about an employment separation agreement and whether that agreement could have been construed to constitute a payment of workers’ compensation benefits, thereby tolling the statute of […]

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Superior Court Could Not Compel A Plaintiff Who Filed In Civil Court To Also File A Claim Petition In The Division of Workers’ Compensation

By on February 24, 2022 in Court Rulings, NJ Workers' Comp with 0 Comments

The case of Brian Smith v. Township of South Hackensack, No. A-3258-20 (App. Div. February 18, 2022), addressed an unusual procedural question seldom, if ever, seen before.  The Appellate Division decision provides hardly any factual background at all other than this brief summary:  “Plaintiff, a volunteer firefighter, was struck by a South Hackensack fire truck […]

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Appellate Court Affirms Decision That Company’s “Fun Day” Was Not a Work Event

By on November 8, 2019 in Compensability, NJ Workers' Comp with 0 Comments

Any decision from the Appellate Division on recreational or social activities is welcome precisely because there have been so few decisions since the 1979 Amendments.  The case of Goulding v. NJ Friendship House, Inc., A-5996-17T3 (App. Div. November 7, 2019) is the most recent decision on this area of law in years. Kim Goulding worked […]

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Appellate Division Affirms Decision of Judge of Compensation Finding That The New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority Did Not Need To Reconstruct Petitioner’s Wage in Award of One Third of Permanent Partial Disability

By on June 27, 2019 in Awards, NJ Workers' Comp with 0 Comments

Reconstruction of Wages is an issue in many New Jersey workers’ compensation matters.  In a case handled by Capehart Scatchard and successfully argued by Keith Nagy, Esq., the Appellate Division stressed that petitioner has to prove permanent impairment of full-time working capacity arising from a work injury before wages must be reconstructed. The case is […]

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Accident Walking To Car Found Compensable In Application for Accidental Disability Pension

New Jersey public employees who are unable to work due to work accidents may apply for generous accidental disability pensions, providing approximately two thirds to 70% of pay with no federal taxes owed.  The standards for an accidental disability pension are rather similar to those in a workers’ compensation case, as is shown by the […]

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Appellate Division Reverses Comp Award For Underpaying Claimant Due To An Incorrect Social Security Offset Calculation

By on August 1, 2016 in Awards, NJ Workers' Comp with 0 Comments

Josephine Lucciola appealed from an order denying her request to vacate a February 23, 2012 order establishing her social security offset.  She contended that the order contained the wrong offset calculation and that she was being shorted tens of thousands of dollars by her employer, Home Depot.  There was no dispute that Lucciola had been […]

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Appellate Division Allows Comp Retaliation Case To Proceed To Jury

Workers’ compensation retaliation claims are rare birds in New Jersey, and the case of Robinson v. Armadillo Automation, Inc. explains the standard for proving such cases.  Spencer Robinson worked as a valve technician from May 2005 until August 2011.  He alleged that when he was hired, he disclosed a prior low back condition, and he […]

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Petitioner Failed To Prove Her Husband’s Death From Multiple Myeloma Was Related To Possible Benzene Exposure During A Five Year Period

By on October 13, 2014 in Key Defenses, NJ Workers' Comp with 0 Comments

Decedent, Gerald Hallquist, worked as a laboratory technician for E.I. Dupont de Nemours (hereinafter Dupont) from 1968 until his retirement in 1998.  Between 1977 and 1982, he worked in the quality control lab with liquid chemicals, including benzene.  He wore safety gloves and a uniform supplied by Dupont.  When working with certain chemicals, the decedent […]

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Appellate Court Defers to Compensation Judge on Assessment of Partial Permanent Disability

One of the most challenging aspects of New Jersey workers’ compensation practice is estimating the level of permanent partial disability, particularly in a system in which the evaluating physicians have such disparate estimates.  The New Jersey Division of Workers’ Compensation does not use AMA Guidelines, which makes it even harder to reconcile widely diverging medical […]

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Supreme Court Finds County Employee’s Injury Not Compensable

Supreme Court Finds County Employee’s Injury Not Compensable

In a surprising decision from the New Jersey Supreme Court, an award to Cheryl Hersh, an employee of Morris County, was reversed on April 1, 2014. Ms. Hersh was employed by the County since September 2002 as a Senior Clerk in the Board of Elections.  In 2004 the County assigned her free parking at a […]

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Slip And Fall At Work Accelerated Need for Surgery In Claimant With Severe Arthritic Hip Condition

By on March 11, 2014 in Key Defenses, NJ Workers' Comp with 0 Comments
Slip And Fall At Work Accelerated Need for Surgery In Claimant With Severe Arthritic Hip Condition

Among the hardest cases for employers to contend with are those where the claimant already has an advanced degenerative or arthritic condition and then has an injury.  That was the situation when Veronica Graham, a 55-year-old Certified Nursing Assistant, fell on a wet floor at work on June 25, 2011.  She landed on her left […]

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Volunteer Firefighters May Be Employees under FMLA

By on February 7, 2014 in FMLA, NJ Workers' Comp with 0 Comments
Volunteer Firefighters May Be Employees under FMLA

The City of Gibraltar employed 41 employees, excluding its “volunteer” firefighters.  When it fired one of the firefighters, Paul Mendel, he sued under the FMLA. The city countered that it was not covered under the FMLA because it had less than 50 employees. There were 25-30 “volunteer firefighters” whom the City contended were not truly […]

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Compensability Determination Comes Down to a Measurement in Harrah’s Premises Claim

By on January 23, 2014 in Compensability, NJ Workers' Comp with 0 Comments
Compensability Determination Comes Down to a Measurement in Harrah’s Premises Claim

The premises rule in New Jersey states that employees are covered when they are on property owned or controlled by the employer.  How far can this be stretched?  When a car accident occurs on a public street with only part of the car touching the employer’s premises, is an injury still covered under the New […]

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