The initial paragraph of this ruling by the Court of Appeals states "It is well settled that some categories of workers' compensation benefits may pass, in certain circumstances, to the beneficiaries of injured employees who die from causes unrelated to the work injury." The court then noted that unaccrued portions of a nonschedule award under Workers' Compensation Law (WCL) §15(3)(w) do not so pass, explaining that the statute "does not provide for any unaccrued portion of a nonschedule award to remain payable following an injured employee's death."
The Employee had sustained an injury in a work-related accident classified as having a nonschedule permanent partial disability. Employee received an award pursuant to WCL §15(3)(w) in the amount of $500 per week.
Pursuant to statutory caps imposed on the period for which nonscheduled awards may be paid, Employee was to receive this amount for no longer than 350 weeks. Employee, however, passed away due to unrelated causes after 311.2 weeks. Employee's minor son [Claimant] sought the accrued unpaid amounts of his father's award, as well as benefits for the 38.8 weeks that remained before Employee's award would have reached the statutory durational cap.
The Workers' Compensation Board affirmed an administrative law judge's ruling denying these benefits sought by Claimant explaining that "no additional award is payable to the decedent's surviving child" because "[t]o be entitled to the awards the [employee] must have causally related lost time," and "[w]ith [an employee's] death, there are no future earnings to lose," so "no posthumous award is warranted".
In the words of the Court of Appeals, "[t]here is no dispute that, pursuant to WCL §33, Claimant is entitled to the accrued, unpaid portion of the award which his father should have received during his lifetime, in the amount of 311.2 weeks at $500 per week. [Claimant, however] is not entitled to $500 per week for an additional 38.8 weeks" sought by Claimant.
The court explained that under WCL §15 (4), where an injured employee dies from causes other than the injury, an award "made to a claimant under subdivision three" may pass, as relevant here, to "a surviving child ... under the age of eighteen years." WCL §15(3) provides for two categories of awards for injuries resulting in permanent partial disability. A "schedule loss of use" [SLU] award, provided for in §15(3)(a)-(u), is designed to "compensate for loss of earning power, rather than the time that an employee actually loses from work or the injury itself".
The nature of nonschedule awards, dependent on an employee's actual earnings and the continuance of the disability, is such that there is no remaining portion of the award that can pass through to a beneficiary. Accordingly, the Court of Appeals held that "the Workers' Compensation Board's 2021 decision and so much of the Appellate Division order brought up for review" in the instant appeal should be reversed, with costs, "and the Workers' Compensation Board's 2019 decision reinstated."
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