New York: Failure to Disclose Gambling Activity Results in Forfeiture of Benefits

The failure on the part of a workers’ compensation claimant to disclose that he and others had been involved in illegal gambling activities—bookmaking—constituted the sort of misrepresentation that warranted the mandatory penalty rescinding the award of workers’ compensation benefits and a discretionary penalty disqualifying claimant from receiving any future wage replacement benefits, held a New York appellate court. The criminal activity came to light during claimant’s plea colloquy in a separate criminal matter. He admitted that he and others and conspired to advance unlawful gambling activities. The court discounted claimant’s contention that he had only gambled, not been involved in bookmaking. The appellate court concluded that the rationale for the imposition of the penalty was sufficiently explained, and that the penalty was not disproportionate to claimant’s misrepresentations.

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 Kornreich v. Elmont Glass Co., 194 A.D.3d 1322 (3d Dept. May 27, 2021)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 39.03.

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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