New York: Employee Need Not Give Separate Notice for Additional Injuries Related to Original Accident

For purposes of N.Y. Work. Comp. Law § 18, “accident” is not synonymous with the term injury. Accordingly, where a medical surgical technician slipped on a wet floor while performing her duties and reported an injury to her left knee at that time, she was not required to give the employer a separate notice later under § 18 when she sought benefits with respect to her right knee, back and bilateral shoulders that she claimed arose from the same incident. Under § 18, she was required to give notice within 30 days. The same provision excused notice on various grounds, including that the employer or its agents had knowledge of the accident. Here the employer clearly had knowledge of the accident. The technician need not provide additional notice of the other injuries.

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

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See In the Matter of Logan v. New York City Health & Hospital Corp., 2016 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3658 (3rd Dep’t, May 12, 2016)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 126.03.

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