Silence on Prior Hand Injury Expels University Dean's WC Claim

Brooklyn, NY (WorkersCompensation.com) -- In New York, it’s an employee’s obligation to show that her injury is work-related, including by providing competent medical evidence.

As a case involving a university dean showed in Yearwood v. Long Island Univ., No. 534130 (Sup. Ct. N.Y., App Div. 11/17/22), an employer may be able to secure the dismissal of a workers’ compensation claim if the employee’s medical evidence fails to account for a preexisting injury.

The dean sought treatment in September 2020 for wrist, hand, and thumb pain. Her physician diagnosed her with an occupational disease caused by repetitive stress and strain at work. The diagnosis included carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis.

The dean filed for workers' compensation benefits, asserting that her medical conditions were caused by her work tasks. As medical evidence, she provided the records from her September doctor’s visit. At the employer’s request, the dean underwent an independent medical exam. The doctor largely reached the same conclusion.

However, during a hearing in the case, the dean seemed to tell a different story—or at least, she added some key facts which she had, until then, failed to mention. While being cross-examined, she disclosed for the first time that, in 2014, she sought treatment from another physician for hand problems. She added that, at the time, she had an electromyography to assess the health of her hand muscles and nerves.

The Workers' Compensation Board found that, based upon the dean’s failure to report her treatment history to her physician, the independent medical examiner, or the Board, that she had failed to satisfy her burden of submitting credible medical evidence linking her conditions to her current employment.

The court agreed. It noted that it was up to the dean to establish, through competent medical evidence, that her work caused her injury.

The court pointed to several signs that the dean failed to meet that burden:

• The medical reports of her treatment provider (who did not testify), did not reflect that she disclosed her 2014 treatment and diagnostic tests, and no such history was noted under past medical history.
• The dean represented in the claim form submitted to the Board that she had no prior hand injuries.
• The independent medical examiner’s report showed that the dean failed to provide any information regarding her medical or treatment history, prior injuries or accidents, or occupational history and that she refused to complete the IME questionnaire. On the questionnaire, the dean added: "[a]s per attorney, not completing.” 

The Board, the court observed, found that the dean’s belated disclosure of her medical history on cross-examination "strongly called into question the veracity of [her] proffered history and onset of symptoms." 

“[T[he Board rationally concluded that ‘none of the relevant medical providers in the record possessed a sufficient understanding of . . . claimant's complete medical history to proffer a credible medical opinion on the issue of causal relationship,’" the court wrote. 

The court affirmed the Board’s finding that the dean failed to submit sufficient, credible medical evidence to establish a work injury.

For claims and compliance information from New York and all 53 U.S, Jurisdictions, visit WorkCompResearch

Share This Article: