Stellar defense work by Goldberg Segalla partner Courtney M. Schott secured a great result for a construction client in a Workers’ Compensation matter.

The underlying case was established for a right ankle injury. The claimant unfortunately died due to unrelated causes four months after his work-related injury. The estate then brought a claim for a posthumous Scheduled Loss of Use — commonly referred to as SLU — to the ankle.

Following litigation, the Workers’ Compensation Law Judge found the claimant had a 95-percent SLU and awarded same to the decedent’s estate. On appeal, the Board Panel agreed with the arguments put forth by Courtney — a Manhattan-based partner in the firm’s Workers’ Compensation practice group — that the decedent was not at Maximum Medical Improvement at the time of his unrelated death, and, therefore, the estate was not entitled to any SLU award for the ankle injury.

Thus, thanks to Courtney’s excellent work, our client was spared more than $223,000 in potential SLU awards.

As this case demonstrates, while the Workers’ Compensation Board has allowed posthumous SLU awards, the claimant still needs to be at maximum medical improvement prior to death.