New York: Decision Must be Limited to Issue Actually Before WCLJ

A finding by New York’s Workers’ Compensation Board that surgery related to an injured employee’s back condition should not be approved was error, held a state appellate court, where the Board’s decision (affirming that of a WCLJ) was based upon two medical reports offered by the employer, but as to which the employee had no opportunity to submit contradictory evidence or even to cross-examine the doctors, said the appellate court. The court also noted that the scope of the WCLJ’s hearing had been limited to discussion of whether claimant had sustained a further causally related disability. That issue and the issue of whether the claimant was entitled to surgery were separate disputes. The case was remitted for further consistent proceedings.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the co-Editor-in-Chief and 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 Matter of Ozoria v. Advantage Mgt. Ass’n, 2021 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3222 (3d Dept., May 13, 2021)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 127.11.

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

For a more detailed discussion of the case, see

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