New York: Failure to Disclose Volunteer Activity Amounts to Misrepresentation for Purposes of § 114-a

A New York appellate court held that substantial evidence supported a determination by the state Board that claimant had made false statements on a questionnaire for the purpose of obtaining workers’ compensation benefits [see N.Y. Work. Comp. Law § 114-a] where she denied participating in any volunteer activity since her 2005 accidental injury, but video surveillance three years later showed her engaging in volunteer activity at a youth-based camp. An investigation indicated claimant had been listed as a contact person for the camp and that on the date the investigator conducted the video surveillance, claimant was available in the camp’s main office and answered questions about the camp’s activities. It also appeared claimant was authorized to sign checks on behalf of the camp. There was sufficient evidence to support the Board’s basic finding. The court indicated, however, that the Board had failed to provide the rationale for the imposition of a discretionary penalty. The matter was remanded for such a determination.

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 the Claim of Martinez v. Kingston City School Dist., 2016 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 4611 (June 16, 2016)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 39.02.

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