Austin v. Coin Depot Corp.

Citations

• 209 Conn. App. 131

Syllabus

The plaintiff employee appealed to this court from the decision of the Compensation Review Board affirming the decision of the Workers' Compensation Commissioner finding that the defendant nonprofit entity, created pursuant to the Connecticut Insurance Guaranty Association Act (§ 38a-836 et seq.), discharged its obligations under a provision (§ 31- 307a (c)) of the Workers' Compensation Act (§ 31-275 et seq.) that entitles certain injured employees to cost of living adjustments to their disability benefits. The plaintiff sustained a compensable injury and, thereafter, entered a voluntary agreement with his employer, the named defendant. Following the insolvency of the named defendant's insurer, the defendant assumed responsibility for the payment of the plaintiff's disability benefits, and C was assigned to administer his claim. There- after, C identified that the plaintiff was entitled to a prospective cost of living adjustment (COLA) and a retroactive lump sum COLA payment, and C set up weekly prospective COLA payments and mailed a check for the retroactive lump sum COLA payment to the plaintiff's attorney. Upon being informed by the plaintiff that he had not received the check, C immediately began an investigation, and the defendant's head of accounting opened an investigation with the drawing bank, which deter- mined that the proper party had endorsed the check. Subsequently, the plaintiff's attorney admitted to C that he had received the check and had given it to the plaintiff's father, Howard Austin, Sr. At the hearing before the commissioner, the plaintiff testified that the signature on the check was his father's signature. Although the plaintiff maintained that his legal name is Howard Austin, Jr., and that he uses that name on all legal documents, the COLA check, his weekly compensation checks and the agreement with his employer all bore the name Howard Austin. The plaintiff filed a claim seeking an order requiring the defendant to reissue the retroactive