What Do You Think: Did COVID-19 Allow Employee to Delay Workers' Compensation Proceedings?

Topeka, KS (WorkersCompensation.com) – When the pandemic hit in March of 2020, time stood still in many places – including for court calendars and deadlines.

However, labor departments stayed busy – and open – and as a Kansas court recently addressed, the clock might not have stopped for workers’ compensation claimants.

A police department employee sought workers’ compensation benefits from the city for an injury he claimed that he sustained while working.

An administrative law judge denied the employee’s requests for medical care and temporary total disability payments, finding that he failed to show his claimed work injury was the prevailing cause of his medical condition, need for treatment, or resulting impairment.

After a year passed and the employee didn’t take steps to pursue his claim further, the city applied to dismiss it, contending that the deadline for the employee to appeal had passed. In response, the employee argued that, under an administrative order, the Kansas Supreme Court had tolled all statutes of limitations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and that the pandemic constituted good cause to extend the one-year deadline.

The ALJ dismissed the employee’s case, concluding that the COVID-19-related order did not apply to deadlines in workers’ compensation matters. According to the ALJ, the orders focused on judicial proceedings, not administrative law. The ALJ also pointed out that the pandemic could only have affected about 22 days of the 365 days he had to pursue his claim, and that the state Department of Labor stayed open and staffed during the pandemic, unlike the courts.

The employee petitioned the Workers’ Compensation Board to review the ALJ’s decision. The board upheld the ALJ’s decision, noting that the employee didn’t demonstrate that he was in the process of gathering evidence or moving his claim toward a regular hearing. The board also agreed with the ALJ that the COVID-19-related order didn’t apply to deadlines in workers’ compensation proceedings.

The employee appealed to court.

Did COVID-19 excuse the employee from meeting deadlines on his workers’ compensation claim?

A. Yes. The pandemic shut things down at the time when the employee needed to file his claim.

B. No. Even before the COVID-19 public health emergency, the employee did not take steps to move his claim forward.

If you picked B, you were on the side of the court Haney v. City of Lawrence, No. 123,868 (Kan. Ct. App. 04/22/22, unpublished), which upheld the board’s and ALJ’s decision rejecting the employee’s claim. According to the court, COVID-19 was not a good-faith reason for the delay.

The court pointed out that the employee never described how the pandemic hampered his efforts to prosecute his claim during the one-year period he had to pursue it, when only the last few weeks of the year were impacted by the pandemic.

Thus, the court agreed that the pandemic did not excuse the employee from meeting the deadlines required for pursuing his workers’ compensation claim.

This feature does not provide legal advice.

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