Ohio: “Eggshell Theory” Instruction Ok’d For Trial Court Hearing Appeal of Comp Award

In a trial court proceeding following an employer's appeal of award of benefits awarded by the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation, it was appropriate to instruct the jury on the so-called "eggshell" theory of medical causation since the employer had contended the employee's condition was the result of natural deterioration and not the incident of a work-place accident, held a state appellate court. Chiding the employer for attempting to confuse the issue in what the appellate court said was "an ordinary workers' compensation claim [Opinion, ¶ 14], the court said there was competent, credible evidence to support the jury's finding that the employee had injured his shoulder in a work-related incident and that there was a proximate causal relationship between that injury and the condition for which the employee complained. Admittedly, there was a conflict in the medical evidence, but that was for the jury to resolve.

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 Towles v. MillerCoors, LLC, 2021-Ohio-34, 2021 Ohio App. LEXIS 27 (Jan. 11, 2021)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 9.02.

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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