Utah: Worker Entitled to PTD Award in Spite of Return to Work at Higher Income

Where a Utah worker sustained catastrophic work-related injuries, including the amputation of both feet, when he accidentally came into contact with a high voltage power line and yet, after a significant period of recuperation was able to return to full-time employment in a different capacity, only to be laid off later for unrelated reasons, he then qualified for permanent total disability benefits in spite of his return to full-time duty. The court stressed that there were two avenues to a PTD award. One required only a showing that he or she had lost two limbs or eyes [see Utah Code Ann. § 34A-2-413(9)}. In as much as the worker clearly had established the loss of both feet, he qualified in spite of the fact that during some post-injury periods of time he actually earned more income than before his injury.

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 Wasatch Elec. Dynalectric Co. v. Labor Comm'n & Benward, 2020 Utah App. LEXIS 21 (Feb. 13, 2020)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 86.02.

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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