Comp board erred in occupational hearing loss claim: Appeals court
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A New York appellate court said Thursday that the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board erred when it failed to consider the results of an audiogram during an independent medical examination in a case involving a worker’s alleged occupational hearing loss.
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York reversed a comp board’s decision in a 2017 occupational disease claim brought by Ryszard Cala, who says he sustained binaural hearing loss due to prolonged exposure to loud noises during his employment as an asbestos handler.
The employer, PAL Environmental Safety Corp., and its insurer controverted the claim. A workers comp judge later determined Mr. Cala sustained about a quarter of his hearing loss based on reports by the insurer’s physician, a ruling that was subsequently upheld by the workers comp board.
Mr. Cala’s treating physician, however, found that Mr. Cala sustained a greater percentage of hearing loss – nearly three-quarters – than was diagnosed by the insurer’s physician.
The appeals court said it previously found that the board failed to address an omission of a copy of the audiogram results during the independent medical exam process, but that the board, in 2022, failed to address that issue, instead focusing on the fact that Mr. Cala’s benefits application was apparently untimely filed.
On Thursday, the appeals court again remanded the case to the workers comp board to address why the audiogram’s results during the IME process were omitted from the record.
