Bellerive v. Grotto, Inc.

Citations

• 206 Conn. App. 702

Syllabus

The defendant employer G Co. appealed to this court from the decision of the Compensation Review Board, which reversed the decision of the Workers' Compensation Commissioner concluding that G Co.'s workers' compensation insurance policy, issued by the defendant L Co., was still in effect on March 1, 2016, the date on which the plaintiff sustained a compensable injury while at work. In September, 2015, L Co. issued G Co. a workers' compensation insurance policy. In October, 2015, L Co. issued a cancellation notice with an effective cancellation date of Novem- ber 3, 2015, and filed the cancellation notice with the National Council on Compensation Insurance. In February, 2016, L Co. sent G Co. an endorsement to the insurance policy. In April, 2016, G Co. was sent a prorated portion of its previously paid premium. The plaintiff filed a workers' compensation claim against G Co. in May, 2016, and L Co. denied coverage. After a hearing, the commissioner found that coverage was in place on the date of the plaintiff's injury and that the cancellation notice did not comply with certain statutory (§ 31-321) requirements. L Co. appealed to the board, which reversed the commissioner's decision. Held that the board properly determined that the insurance policy was cancelled effectively on November 3, 2015, and that there was no insur- ance coverage on the date of the plaintiff's injury: L Co.'s electronic notice of the cancellation to NCCI was sufficient to comply with the requirements that insurance companies notify the chairman of the Work- ers' Compensation Commission of cancellations pursuant to statute (§ 31-248), as § 31-248 authorized the commission to utilize NCCI to collect notices electronically of policy cancellations and was what the legislature intended when it amended § 31-248; moreover, the fact that G Co. may have believed that it still had insurance because L Co. did not refund the premium until after the date of the plaintiff's injury and sent inconsistent lett