Hale v. Rochester Tel. Corp.

• Citation: 123 N.Y.S.3d 249,182 A.D.3d 961
• Decision Date: 30 April 2020
• Docket Number: 529118
• Court: New York Supreme Court Appellate Division
• Parties: In the Matter of the Claim of Deborah HALE, Appellant, v. ROCHESTER TELEPHONE CORPORATION et al., Respondents. Workers' Compensation Board, Respondent.

182 A.D.3d 961

123 N.Y.S.3d 249

In the Matter of the Claim of Deborah HALE, Appellant,

v. ROCHESTER TELEPHONE CORPORATION et al., Respondents.Workers' Compensation Board, Respondent.

529118

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Department, New York.

Calendar Date: March 25, 2020

Decided and Entered: April 30, 2020

Connors & Ferris, LLP, Rochester (Justin P. McCombs of counsel), for appellant.

Habberfield Kaszycki LLP, Buffalo (Matthew Yeates of counsel), for Rochester Telephone Corporation and another, respondents.

Before: Lynch, J.P., Mulvey, Devine, Aarons and Colangelo, JJ.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

Mulvey, J.

Appeals (1) from a decision of the Workers' Compensation Board, filed October 19, 2018, which, among other things, denied claimant's request to modify a prior award, and (2) from a decision of said Board, filed January 4, 2019, which denied claimant's application for reconsideration and/or full Board review.

In August 1993, claimant suffered a work-related injury to her right knee. By decision filed December 22, 1995, a Workers' Compensation Law Judge (hereinafter WCLJ) classified claimant with a permanent partial disability and awarded her workers' compensation benefits. In October 2004, a WCLJ discharged the employer's workers' compensation carrier from liability and transferred liability to the Special Fund for Reopened Cases. By decision filed April 14, 2010, a WCLJ awarded claimant a 55% schedule loss of use (hereinafter SLU) of the right leg, with 50% apportioned to a separate noncompensable injury, entitling her to 79.2 weeks of benefits and an additional 46.2 weeks of benefits for a protracted healing period (hereinafter PHP). Claimant underwent causally-related surgeries to her right knee in 2012 and 2014.

Following a July 2017 decision in which the issue of an additional PHP was held in abeyance pending claimant's request to reopen the case, claimant made a request for further action in January 2018, for "an immediate hearing to address awards for the [PHP]." At a March 2018 hearing, claimant requested an additional PHP based upon the 2012 and 2014 surgeries.¹ By decision filed March 6, 2018, a WCLJ determined that claimant was entitled to an additional 154.4 weeks of PHP, subject to the prior 55% SLU award and related apportionment, based upon a change in her condition due to the 2012 and 2014 surgeries. Upon the Special Fund's application for review, the Workers' Compensation Board reversed, by decision filed October 19, 2018, denying claimant an additional PHP based upon its finding that claimant failed to demonstrate a change in her condition. Claimant filed an application for reconsideration and/or full Board review, which the Board denied. Claimant appeals from both decisions.

Initially, claimant requested an additional PHP based upon an alleged change in her condition following the 2012 and 2014 surgeries to her right knee, and the WCLJ and Board decisions, and claimant's related applications to the Board, do not reference any request for a reclassification of her disability. The Board thus erroneously applied Workers' Compensation Law § 15(6–a) regarding the reclassification of a disability, as a PHP "is simply an incident of the schedule[ ] award[, which] is neither a classification nor disability in itself" ( Matter of Guyette v. Montgomery Ward & Co., 60 A.D.2d 52, 53–54, 401 N.Y.S.2d 101 [1977] ; see Workers' Compensation Law § 15[6–a] ).

Nevertheless, the Board has continuing jurisdiction over each case, and it may modify or change an award "as in its opinion may be just" ( Workers' Compensation Law § 123 ). Further, "[u]pon its own motion or upon the application of any party in interest, on the ground of a change in conditions ..., the [B]oard may at any time ... review any award, decision or order and, on such review, may make an award ending, diminishing or increasing the compensation previously awarded" ( Workers' Compensation Law § 22 ). Although the Board erroneously applied to claimant's request the statutory provision regarding the reclassification of a disability, such application similarly required a factual determination as to whether claimant established a change in her condition as part of its review of the evidence (see Workers' Compensation Law §§ 15[6–a] ; 22; Matter of Thomas v. Crucible Materials Corp., 73 A.D.3d 1323, 1324, 901 N.Y.S.2d 735 [2010] ). The Board's factual determination in this regard will not be disturbed so long as it is supported by substantial record evidence (see Matter of Lanese v. Anthem Health Servs., 165 A.D.3d 1373, 1374, 85 N.Y.S.3d 262 [2018] ; Matter of Cuva v. State Ins. Fund, 144 A.D.3d 1362, 1364, 41 N.Y.S.3d 324 [2016] ).

Martin Gingras, claimant's treating physician, opined in a November 2009 report that claimant had a 55% SLU of the right leg and that she had "full extension [of the right knee], but her flexion [was] limited to 90 degrees." In April 2010, the WCLJ determined that claimant had, in fact, a 55% SLU of the right leg. In a December 2014 report, following the 2012 and 2014 surgeries to claimant's right knee, Gingras maintained that claimant had a 55% SLU to her right leg. His progress report from June 2016 found that claimant continued to have a 55% SLU due to "chronic pain."² Likewise, Gregory B. Shankman, a physician who conducted an independent medical examination in March 2017, opined that claimant's range of motion for flexion and extension of the right knee each measured at 10 to 90 degrees, and that she had a 55% SLU of the right leg ...