Gardner v. Dept. of Mental Health & Addiction Services

Citations

• 223 Conn. App. 221

Syllabus

The plaintiff, who had sustained a compensable work-related injury during her employment, appealed to this court from the decision of the Compen- sation Review Board, which upheld the decision of the Workers' Com- pensation Commissioner granting the defendant employer's request to convert the plaintiff's benefits for temporary partial disability, pursuant to statute (§ 31-308 (a)), to permanent partial disability benefits, pursu- ant to § 31-308 (b), after medical examinations determined that the plaintiff had attained maximum medical improvement and had a light- duty work capacity. The plaintiff claimed that the board had improperly determined that, because she had reached maximum medical improve- ment, she could no longer receive temporary partial disability benefits pursuant to § 31-308 (a). Although the plaintiff contended that the Supreme Court in Osterlund v. State (129 Conn. 591) had recognized the discretion of a commissioner to award ongoing temporary partial disability benefits to a claimant who had reached maximum medical improvement, the board reasoned that, although the holding in Osterlund had been codified in § 31-308 (d), that statutory provision had been repealed by the legislature in 1993. On the plaintiff's appeal to this court, held that the board properly interpreted the authority afforded the commissioner pursuant to § 31-308 (a) and upheld the commissioner's determination: despite the plaintiff's claim that the commissioner had discretion pursuant to § 31-308 to award ongoing wage loss disability benefits in lieu of permanent partial disability benefits after she attained maximum medical improvement, this court determined that, although neither § 31-308 nor other provisions of the Workers' Compensation Act (§ 31-275 et seq.) expressly address whether a commissioner is authorized to continue to award temporary partial disability benefits in lieu of permanent partial disability benefits after the injured employee reaches maximum medical improvem