New York: Court Affirms Board's Finding that Claimant Had Withdrawn From Labor Market

Noting the broad latitude afforded New York's Workers' Compensation Board in determining whether a claimant had withdrawn from the labor market, a state appellate court affirmed a Board decision that a substitute teacher, who sustained injuries when she tripped and fell at a school where she was working, had withdrawn from the labor market. Her loss of earnings, therefore, was not connected to her injury, but rather to a personal choice that she had made. The court noted that claimant had worked for two weeks after the fall and had done so without any medical restrictions. She had not bothered to register or otherwise attempt to work as a substitute teacher the following term. She did work briefly for an art studio and she worked briefly for a real estate company. The court agreed with the Board that to the extent that she was attached the labor market at all, her loss of earnings was not causally connected to her earlier injuries.

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 Profeta v. Edward J. Bosti Elementary Sch., Connetquot Cent. Sch. Dist. of Islip, 2020 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 6632 (3d Dept. Nov. 12, 2020)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 84.04.

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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