DC: Review Board Clarifies Formula for Supplemental Allowances Under D.C. Code § 32–1506

The District of Columbia Compensation Review Board (CRB), following a remand by the D.C. Court of Appeals, held that for purposes of computing a supplemental allowance under D.C. Code § 32–1506, the phrase “the maximum weekly rate applicable at the time such award was made,” found in the provisions subsection (c) refers to the maximum rate on the date of injury and not, as the employer had argued, the maximum rate in effect when the claimant became permanently and totally disabled. The CRB noted that D.C. Code § 32–1506 had been devised to allow for some upward adjustment in a claimant’s compensation rate where the claimant was permanently and totally disabled. The provision reflects the fact that ordinarily an injured worker’s comp rate is not adjusted over time yet, over time, the maximum allowable compensation rate rises. The claimant, a paralegal in a law firm, injured her back in 1998 and began receiving TTD benefits. An ALJ ultimately found that she was permanently and totally disabled as of 1/1/2008. The CRB determined that the maximum weekly rate in place in 1998 should be used in the statutory formula, not the maximum rate in place ten years later.

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. Bracketed citations link to lexis.com.

See Molloy v. Powell, Goldstein, Frazier & Murphy, CRB No. 13–140 (R) [CRB No. 13–140 (R))]

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 93.05 [93.05]

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

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