Workers' Compensation
Listed below is McConnaughhay, Coonrod, Pope, Weaver & Stern, P.A.'s workers' compensation case law database. The database dates back until 1971 and includes over 5500 workers' compensation court decisions.
To view the case summaries, select one of the general topics listed below.
Power Plant Maintenance v. Mercado
23 FLW D2519
JCC erred in rejecting unrefuted testimony of doctors
relating to maximum medical improvement without giving
sufficient reason for doing so. JCC concluded that
doctors providing testimony as to MMI had not addressed
or treated the claimant's leg injuries. Record
evidence did not sustain that finding since the medical
records did indicate the doctors provided treatment for
the claimant's leg injury. Neither doctor testifying
indicated that there was any reasonable expectation
that additional treatment would lead to any improvement
of the claimant's leg injury. Complaints of pain by
the claimant are an insufficient basis to reject
unrefuted medical testimony.
An injured worker is not entitled to workers'
compensation benefits if he is an inmate of a public
institution unless he has dependent upon him for
support a person or persons qualifying as dependents as
defined by statute. A spouse living apart from the
injured worker incarcerated may not recover benefits
without first producing evidence of substantial
dependence on the employee for financial support and
justifiable cause for any physical separation at the
time of the injury. The burden of proving such
dependency is on the spouse and not the
employer/carrier. In this instance, there was no
evidence that the claimant's wife was financially
dependent upon him at the time of his injury and
therefore, she was not entitled to benefits while the
claimant was incarcerated.
JCC erred in ordering temporary partial benefits after
maximum medical improvement. During periods of
incarceration, no benefits were payable since
dependency was not established.
