LOIS Uses Peculiar Forklift Incident and Cover-Up to Prove Unrelated Wage Loss

LOIS Associate Bradley Haymes successfully proved that the Claimant had no causally related wage loss in a New York Workers’ Compensation case. Haymes raised an unrelated wage loss defense, citing the Claimant’s termination for damaging company property and failing to report the safety hazard that he created. The Claimant alleged that he was terminated due to his work restrictions and that the damage to the property was “pretextual” in light of his Workers’ Compensation claim. The Claimant also alleged that the damage occurred before his work injury and that the employer-witness testified that the damage occurred afterward. Ultimately, the Law Judge adopted Haymes’s argument and found that the employer-witness was more credible. In doing so, the Law Judge agreed that the Claimant driving a forklift into a wall and then using a table to cover it up before walking off the job was sufficient grounds for his termination. Thus, the Claimant’s wage loss was found to be unrelated to his disability, and the Carrier is not liable for claimed compensable lost time.