Was Deceased Paratransit Driver’s COVID-19 Linked to his Job?

New York, NY (WorkersCompensation.com) -- As an employer or workers’ compensation carrier in New York, when should you fight a COVID-19-related claim, and when should you not? A case involving a worker who drove sick patients to medical appointments during the pandemic offers some clarity on the topic.

The employee worked as a full-time paratransit driver, driving people who were often visibly ill to and from medical appointments. At the height of the pandemic, he told his wife people were coughing and sneezing on the back “all the time.” There were no barriers between the driver’s seat and rear seats. The company provided its drivers masks and face shields. No one was tested for the virus before entering the vehicle.  

The driver last worked on March 19, 2020. The following day, he developed symptoms consistent with COVID-19. The symptoms worsened on March 24, and he was admitted to a local hospital, where he tested positive. One week later, he died from respiratory failure due to COVID-19.

The driver’s wife filed for death benefits. A workers’ compensation law judge granted them, and the Workers’ Compensation Board agreed. 

The employer appealed, claiming the driver did not sustain a compensable injury. It pointed, in part, to a notation on the hospital records stating that the driver contracted COVID-19 from his pastor, whom he had last seen on March 1.

The court explained that, with respect to COVID-19, the claimant has to show that the injury arose out of and in the course of the worker’s employment. The claimant may meet that burden by demonstrating either of the following:

1. A specific exposure to COVID-19 at work; or
2. The prevalence of COVID-19 in the work environment so as to present an elevated risk of exposure constituting an extraordinary event.

Was the driver’s COVID-19 connected to his work?

A. Yes. The nature of his job activities and fact that he contracted the virus at a time when it was rampant showed COVID-19 was so prevalent as to create an elevated risk of exposure.

B. No. The claimant failed to meet her burden because even the hospital records said the driver contracted the virus from his pastor.

If you selected A, you agreed with the court in Miller v. Transbus on Demand, LLC, No. CV-23-0661 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. App. Div. 10/10/24), which held that because of his job, the driver was greatly at risk of contracting the virus while driving.

The court was unpersuaded by the hospital notation that the driver contracted the virus from his pastor. It pointed out that the driver became symptomatic on March 20 and tested positive on March 24, well beyond the 2-14-day incubation period for COVID-19.

Further, the driver interacted regularly and closely with members of the public, in particular those needing medical attention and displaying signs of the virus at a time when the virus was prevalent in the community. His job thus subjected him to an elevated risk of exposure constituting an extraordinary event. 

“Under these circumstances, substantial evidence supports the Board's finding that decedent's death on March 30, 2020 was causally-related to his contraction of COVID-19 in the workplace,” the court wrote.

It affirmed the Board’s decision that the injury was compensable.

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