Saturday, April 22, 2006

Professional Hockey Player Sues for Workers' Comp

In the interest of full disclosure, an article about this post appeared this week on the pages of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly (humbly written by one of your bloggers). The case involves an interesting workers’ compensation claim brought by a professional hockey player against his team.

Daniel Focht was a forward for the Springfield Falcons of the American Hockey League, a minor league team affiliated with the Phoenix Coyotes of the National Hockey League. He later went on to play a few years in the NHL. In December 1999 and September 2000, he was injured during games and sustained facial disfigurement while playing for the Falcons. He was paid $15,000, the maximum amount available under Mass. law.

During two different games in the 2001-2002 playing season, he then sustained additional facial scarring and sought additional workers’ comp payment. At a hearing before an administrative judge, the insurance carrier contended that Focht had already reached the $15,000 cap based on the prior payments and was not entitled to additional money. The administrative judge sided with the player and awarded him the benefits claimed.

The decision was appealed and a Massachusetts court ruled that Focht was entitled to a separate workers' compensation payout for each facial scarring injury that he received during the four separate games — even if the total payout exceeded the workers' comp cap of $15,000.

The insurance carrier’s lawyer, who represents the insurance company that insures most of the teams in professional hockey argued that by the time the most recent set of facial injuries had occurred, the player had already been awarded $15,000, which is the maximum amount allowable under the statute governing recovery under workers' compensation for facial scars.

But in upholding the decision in Focht’s favor, the court wrote that to the extent that different injuries caused different bodily disfigurements, the court considered that each one was subject to its own $15,000-per-injury maximum. "We see no legislative intent that the employee be subject to an omnibus disfigurement accounting between various insurers covering various injuries," the judge said.

She added that the statute makes clear that the Legislature contemplated specific compensation for an injury and contained no language that attempted to cap the amount an individual player could obtain. The statute provides compensation to any employee "[f]or bodily disfigurement, an amount, which … is a proper and equitable compensation, not to exceed fifteen thousand dollars."

"If the [L]egislature in 1991 intended to change the application of the [statute's] cap from injury to employee, by virtue of its change in the method of calculating the maximum entitlement, it easily could have said so," the judge stated, adding that the review board was not inclined to infer such an intention.

For those having difficulty accessing the link, the full decsion be found at http://www.mass.gov/dia/PUBS/REVIEWS/06B/DanielFocht.pdf.

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