New York: Board Has Broad Discretion in Determining § 114-a Violations

A New York appellate court affirmed a decision by the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board that had found a claimant’s failure to disclose that she had been involved in several prior motor vehicle accidents in which she had claimed to have sustained injuries to her neck and back was not the sort of misrepresentation as to disqualify her from receiving workers’ compensation benefits following a work-related injury at her workplace. Following a hearing, the WCLJ found that claimant had violated N.Y. Workers’ Comp. Law § 114-a, by failing to disclose the prior accidents and injuries. On administrative appeal, the Board concluded otherwise and rescinded the WCLJ’s decision disqualifying the claimant from benefits. The appellate court noted the board discretion afforded the Board on § 114-a matters and affirmed.

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 Sanchez v. US Concrete, 2021 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3334 (3d Dept. May 20, 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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