New York: Videotape Evidence Sinks Claimant’s Claim

A workers’ compensation claimant was appropriately disqualified from receiving benefits under N.Y. Work. Comp. Law § 114-a(1) where claimant represented to his treating physician and the carrier's medical expert that he was in constant pain, required use of a cane or knee brace on a daily basis, and was severely impacted in his ability to stand and walk, but where reports prepared by an investigator showed otherwise. In the surveillance videos, claimant was observed walking without a limp, standing and driving for extended periods of time, bending over to do repair work under the hood of a vehicle, and lifting items, such as a car battery, a floor jack and an automobile tire, from the bed of his truck. The only time during the surveillance period that claimant was observed using a cane or knee brace was during a medical appointment. Later that same day, however, claimant was observed walking normally without any assistive device.

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 Santangelo v. Seaford U.F.S.D., 2018 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 6753 (3rd Dept. Oct. 11, 2018)

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

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