New York: Claim Fails Where Employee Died Before Adequate Record Could be Established

The properly disallowed an employee’s claim for benefits under N.Y. Workers’ Comp. Law § 15(4) because the claim abated upon the employee’s death since the record was undeveloped. The court noted that the employee had not testified or undergone an independent medical examination despite diligent efforts by the carrier to secure both before the worker’s death. While the record was thereafter developed with, among other things, testimony from the employee’s widow, as well as individuals associated with the employer, and a physician who had examined the employee before he died, there was no direct evidence detailing his work activities on the day he was injured or establishing that they led to his worsening physical condition.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the co-Editor-in-Chief and 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 Scano v. Doccs Taconic Corr. Facility, 2021 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 4165 (3d Dept., June 24, 2021)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 89.05.

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

For a more detailed discussion of the case, see

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