Can Widow Seeking Death Benefits after 3-year Filing Deadline Join List of Dependents?

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New Hampshire’s statute of limitations period for filing a workers’ compensation claim is generally three years. A recent ruling from the state’s high court addresses whether, in the case of death benefits, every dependent seeking benefits must meet that deadline or if is sufficient if just one of them meets it.

An employee for a truck repair company died from a work-related injury. His common law wife filed a claim for death benefits on her daughter’s behalf less than a year after the injury. The carrier paid.

More than three years after the injury, the wife requested to be added to the list of dependents receiving death benefits. The carrier denied the claim because she failed to make her request within three years from the day her husband was injured. Her claim was a separate claim from that of her daughter, the carrier argued, and thus it was also subject to the three-year filing period.

The wife appealed and the case eventually reached the New Hampshire Supreme Court. 

The Supreme Court explained that a claim must be filed within three years after the date of injury. RSA 281-A:21-a. 

Further, the statute of limitations is not triggered when "the dependent" or "each dependent" knows of the injury; rather, for purposes of death benefits, the time limitation starts to run when any one dependent has knowledge of the injury. 

Was the widow entitled to benefits despite her late claim?

A. No. Each dependent seeking death benefits must comply with the statute of limitations. Otherwise, a carrier or employer would not know, within the three-year period, how much money it would have to pay.

B. Yes. The statute does not require that each dependent file within three years.

If you selected B, you agreed with the court in Appeal of Estate of Menke, No. 2023-0323 (N.H. 02/19/25), which held that the widow’s claim was not subject to the three-year deadline.

There is no language in the statute requiring each dependent to file within the three-year period, the court observed. Had it intended such a requirement, the legislature could have included it. 

The court found that the fact that the legislature chose to use the singular form of “claim” in the statute of limitations provision showed that “filing a single claim within three years satisfies the statute.” It also pointed to the fact that the three-year period starts to run "the date any dependent" has actual or constructive knowledge of the injury.

The court disagreed that its interpretation undermined the purpose of the law. It noted that changing the allocation of death benefits between dependents would not change the total weekly compensation to be paid.

It acknowledged that its interpretation could extend the length of time a carrier has to make weekly benefit payments. “However, a carrier is not entitled by statute to know the full extent of its exposure under a workers' compensation claim within the limitations period,” the court wrote.

The court held that if a dependent timely files a claim for death benefits and the claim remains open, the statute of limitations provision does not bar subsequent requests for allocation of death benefits by qualifying dependents. That’s the case even if the other dependents file their requests more than three years after the injury.

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