Nevada: To Gain Relief from Subsequent Injury Fund, Employer Need Not Prove it Had Specific Knowledge of Condition

A Nevada employer need not show that it had knowledge of an employee’s specific medical diagnosisin order to receive reimbursement from the state’s Subsequent Injury Fund (“the Fund”). It must, however, prove that it had some sort of knowledge of a preexisting physical impairment that would support an impairment rating of at least six percent of the whole person, held the state’s Supreme Court. Here, the employee worked for more than 20 years as a paramedic/firefighter without any documented history of injury. Thereafter, he did sustain back injuries in the course of his employment and, following an examination by a medical expert hired by the employer/carrier, the doctor indicated the employee had a preexisting condition: spondylolisthesis. The Board found that there could be no reimbursement from the Fund since the employer could not show it had specific knowledge of the spondylolisthesis. The court held that was too much of a burden, but that the employee's preexisting permanent physical impairment must indeed be fairly and reasonably inferred from the written record. The case was remanded for such a determination.

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

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See North Lake Tahoe Fire Prot. Dist. v. Board of Admin., 2018 Nev. LEXIS 107 (Dec. 6, 2018)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 91.01.

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

For a more detailed discussion of the case, see