LOIS Partner Christian Sison and Paralegal Julia Skarimbas obtained a disallowance decision at the trial level, securing a win for their employer-client, a Facility Management company in a New York Workers’ Compensation claim. The Claimant was the widow of a janitor that alleged that the Facility Management company was responsible for the Decedent contracting COVID-19, causing his unfortunate passing.
During investigation, Sison learned that the janitor’s work duties for the Facility Management company were performed alone. Therefore, Sison produced a representative of the company that testified to the timeline of a typical workday for an individual working at the particular location in question. Sison also elicited testimony from the company representative as to its COVID-19 protocol, which gave way to an argument that no such investigation was ever conducted at the location. This was crucial, given that the widow did not report the Decedent’s passing to the Facility Management company for almost seven months after the positive COVID-19 test and almost five months after the Decedent had passed.
Undeterred, Sison also cross-examined the representative of another employer who had employed the Decedent. During that individual’s testimony, the parties learned that the Decedent alleged feeling sick while working for that employer – and not the LOIS-represented Facility Management company. The claim was ultimately disallowed by the Law Judge based on the record that the Decedent worked alone and that none of the Decedent’s co-workers contracted COVID-19. Therefore, while it is expected that the widow will appeal the disallowance of the claim, Sison’s and Skarimbas’s trial record created a backup litigation plan to move responsibility to the other employer.
