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New York: Apportionment in Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Claim Deemed Inappropriate Under Facts

May 13, 2016 (1 min read)

Where a union carpenter was employed by several different employers from 1998 through 2009 and, in 2010, he filed a claim for bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome caused by repetitive work, it was error for the Board to apportion 45 percent of the liability to an earlier employer since the carpenter was not diagnosed with nor treated for the condition until 2010 and the worker’s medical expert failed to offer an opinion as to when the carpenter actually contracted the condition. The carpenter noted that he had occasionally experienced soreness in his hands throughout the period, but that the soreness came and went, depending upon the carpenter’s activities. He also said it was insignificant before 2010. The Court said the evidence in the record could not rationally lead to the date of contraction selected by the Board; it was not supported by substantial evidence.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Scuderi v. Mazzco Enters., 2016 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3416 (3rd Dep’t, May 5, 2016)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 153.03.

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