New York: Two-Year Delay in Filing Sinks Claim

Where a claimant waited for almost two years to notify the workers’ compensation carrier that he had sustained an alleged injury to his shoulder, the New York Board was within its discretion to deny the claim under N.Y. Workers’ Comp. Law § 18, held a state appellate court. The Court acknowledged that the Board was empowered to ignore the delay where it found there had been no prejudice to the employer or carrier. The Court added, however, that even when there was a reason for the delay, the Board did not have to excuse it. The Court added that here the injured employee was a principal of the employer. Under those circumstances, his own knowledge of the injury was not imputed to the carrier.

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 Matter of Horvath v. Mega Forklift, 2019 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 7136 (3d Dept. Oct. 3, 2019)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 126.03.

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

For a more detailed discussion of the case, see