Widow improperly denied compensation in industrial accident: Court
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The Ohio Industrial Commission must revisit a case brought by the widow of a deceased worker who sought compensation for her husband’s loss of use of his extremities due to an industrial accident, an appellate court ruled Thursday.
The Court of Appeals of Ohio ordered the Industrial Commission to vacate a November 2016 decision that denied Pin Cha Byk’s claim for loss-of-use compensation and a petition for accrued benefits.
Ms. Byk’s husband, Bohdanus Byk, a laborer for Republic Steel Corp., was seriously injured in August 2012 when he fell off a platform, landed on concrete and sustained blunt trauma injuries to his head and ribs.
Mr. Byk had brain surgery, but he remained in a persistent vegetative state until his May 2015 death.
Before he died, Ms. Byk petitioned for compensation for her husband’s loss of use of his limbs, and a hearing officer granted the award. The employer appealed, arguing the loss of use of Mr. Byk’s limbs was due to a brain injury and not a direct injury to the limbs.
Another hearing officer subsequently vacated the award.
The appeals court wrote that the Industrial Commission relied on “flawed legal reasoning” in affirming the hearing officer’s decision denying the benefits, stating that it erred in finding that the scheduled-loss compensation requires proof of “direct trauma” to an injured worker’s extremities to accept a claim for loss of use of an extremity.
