Salerno v. Lowe's Home Improvement Center

Syllabus

The defendant employer and its workers' compensation insurer appealed to this court from the decision of the Compensation Review Board, which affirmed the decision of the Workers' Compensation Commis- sioner granting the plaintiff employee's motion to preclude the defen- dants from contesting the compensability of his injuries pursuant to statute (§ 31-294c (b)). The defendants received the plaintiff's notice of claim for compensation but did not file any response until eighteen months later, when they filed a form 43 in which they contested liability for his injuries. The commissioner found that the plaintiff properly filed his notice of claim and that the defendants had not paid him for any of his lost time from work or for any of his medical treatment related to his claim for compensation. The defendants appealed to the board, claiming that the exception to the preclusion provision in § 31-294c (b) recognized in Dubrosky v. Boehringer Ingelheim Corp. (145 Conn. App. 261) was applicable because the plaintiff's failure to present a claim for medical or indemnity benefits within the twenty-eight day time period mandated by § 31-294c (b) made it impossible for the defendants to avail themselves of the one year safe harbor provision of § 31-294c (b), which permits an employer to contest the employee's right to receive compensation on any grounds or the extent of the employee's disability when the employer has failed to contest liability for the plaintiff's injuries within the twenty-eight day time period but commences payment within the twenty-eight day time period. The board rejected the defendants' claim that the exception recognized in Dubrosky was applicable and affirmed the commissioner's decision. Held that the board properly determined that the defendants were precluded from contesting their liability for the plaintiff's injuries; the defendants did not accept liability for the plaintiff's injuries, they belatedly filed a form 43 in which they denied liability,