‘Mailbox Rule’ doesn’t Save Conn. Employer from Filing Deadline

Hartford, CT (WorkersCompensation.com) -- Sometimes when something has to be "filed" by a certain date, the law will say that dropping it in the mail is good enough to meet the deadline.

However, as a Connecticut employer learned in Ajdini v. Frank Lill & Son, Inc., No. SC 20836 (Conn. 04/23/24), the so-called "mailbox rule" isn't always a savior, particularly when a statute specifies that "filed" means it has to be in a judge's possession within a certain timeframe.

During the course of his employment, a worker sustained two separate injuries in the course of his employment. He properly sent to the commission and the employer a Form 30C notice of claim for compensation for each injury.

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The employer mailed to both the commission and the worker a notice of intention to contest the worker's rights to compensation benefits for each injury.

The worker filed with the commission a motion to preclude, arguing that because the employer had failed to commence payment of the claims or to file a notice of intention to contest the claims with 28 days following the employer's receipt of the notice of claims, the employer should be presumed to have accepted the compensability of the worker's alleged injuries.

The administrative law judge agreed and ordered that the employer be conclusively presumed to have accepted the compensability of the worker's alleged injuries.

The employer appealed to the board, arguing that Form 43 states that it must be served on the administrative law judge and the claimant, and that the mailbox rule suggests that the date of service is deemed to be the date of mailing.

The board upheld the ALJ's finding of preclusion, prompting the employer to appeal to court, again arguing that, pursuant to the mailbox rule, mailing a Form 42 within the 28-day statutory period satisfies state law.

In Connecticut, whenever an employer contests liability to pay workers’ compensation benefits, the employer ‘‘shall file’’ with the workers’ compensation administrative law judge, on or before the 28th day after the employer has received the employee’s written notice of claim, a notice of intention to contest the employee’s right to compensation benefits.

Explaining that the ordinary meaning of the word "file" meant to "to deliver," the court explained that the law was "plain and unambiguous that a notice of intention to contest compensation must be delivered, not just mailed, to the administrative law judge on or before" the 28th day after the employer received written notice of the claim.

Workers' Comp 101: As explained in Echavarria v. National Grange Mutual Ins. Co., 880 A.2d 882 (Conn. 2005), the mailbox rule is a common-law principle that ‘‘provides that a properly stamped and addressed letter that is placed into a mailbox or handed over to the United States Postal Service raises a rebuttable presumption that it will be received.’’

Bolstering its position on "file," the court pointed out that law in question also requires an employer to "send" a copy of the notice to the employee.

"If the legislature had wanted ... for an employer to satisfy its statutory obligation by simply mailing the notice, it could have used the word 'send,' just as it did in the same subsection with respect to providing notice to the employee," the court wrote. "Instead, the legislature used the word 'file,' the plain meaning of which requires an employer to do more than place the notice in the mail."

As result, the court concluded that a Form 43 must be delivered to the ALJ on or before the 28th day after the employer has received a written notice of claim in order to be timely filed in Connecticut.

It affirmed the previous rulings in the employee's favor.

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