New York: Claimant’s Motorcycle Riding Disqualifies Him From Benefits

The Board was justified in finding claimant had violated N.Y. Work. Comp. Law § 114-a and should be disqualified from receiving wage replacement benefits where the claimant represented to an orthopedic surgeon that he could not do anything more than sedentary activity, and then only with the use of significant amounts of narcotic pain medication, and that he needed help for all of his activities of daily living when, contrary to that contention, he was shown on a surveillance video engaged in various activities—pumping gas, squatting down, eating lunch out with his wife, sitting in a car, and both entering his truck and mounting and dismounting a motorcycle “with relative ease.” Surveillance footage also showed that claimant road a motorcycle in a forward leaning position for 35 minutes at a time through country roads and in city traffic, which entailed sharp turns and stops at traffic lights, during which he supported the motorcycle with his legs. Claimant had exaggerated or misrepresented his symptoms and the Board was justified in its decision.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See In the Matter of the Claim of Poupore v. Clinton County Highway Dep’t, 2016 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 2915 (Apr. 21, 2016)

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 more information about LexisNexis products and solutions connect with us through our corporate site