New York: Video Surveillance of Injured Firefighter’s Activities Showed Different Picture of Level of Disability

Where a claimant, former firefighter, represented during a functional capacity evaluation that he was unable to lift and/or carry any weighted objects, crouch, reach for an object, or complete any of the balance tests required during the evaluation, yet surveillance video showed the claimant was subsequently able, without any apparent difficulty, to bend, lift and carry objects (including boards and boxes), walk, raise and lower his garage door, and perform maintenance on a machine at his home, the Board was within its discretion under N.Y. Workers’ Comp. Law § 114-a to disqualify him from further future wage replacement benefits, held a state appellate court.

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 Swiech v City of Lackawanna, 2019 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5347 (3rd Dept., July 3, 2019)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 39.03.

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

For a more detailed discussion of the case, see article.