21 Nov 2020

New York: Board Errs in Utilizing "Novel" Standard for Employees Working From Home

The New York appellate court held the state's Board erred when it employed a "novel" standard for work-connectedness in determining the compensability of a claim filed by a claims examiner who worked from home. The employee contended he sustained injuries when he attempted to carry newly purchased office equipment upstairs during his lunch break. The Board affirmed a denial of the claim by the WCLJ, but the Third Department appellate court reversed. Finding the Board had utilized a new standard, under which work-at-home injuries would be compensable only if they occurred during regular work hours and while the employee was actively engaged in work duties as opposed, for example, to taking a short break or using the bathroom, the court held the new standard was not only unsupported by precedent, it was inconsistent with the remedial nature of the Workers' Compensation Law.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Matter of Capraro v Matrix Absence Mgt., 2020 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 6171 (3d Dept., Oct. 22, 2020)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 16.10.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law

For a more detailed discussion of the case, see