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In 2015, Claimant sustained a thoracic spine injury while employed for Belvedere Fire Company. He was compensated for thoracic spine permanency. He voluntarily closed the claim by global commutation in 2018. In 2023, while working for the City of Wilmington, climbing stairs with a pack of gear during a call, he felt pain in his thoracic spine area, missed several weeks from work, and received conservative care to the thoracic spine area. Claimant filed a Petition seeking acknowledgement of the 2023 injury, relying on the opinion of claimant’s family physician. Employer denied the claim based upon the factual circumstances of the event, and medical opinion of Dr. Samuel Matz. Board Hearing was held. The Board issued a Decision accepting Employer’s position that the successive workers’ compensation carrier standard set forth in Nally v. Standard Distributing, 630 A.2d 640 (Del. 1993), applied, denying the Petition, as claimant failed to satisfy that there was both (1) an untoward event, that (2) was the proximate cause of a new injury.
Claimant appealed to the Superior Court, arguing Nally does not apply when the first work injury claim is resolved by global commutation, and in the alternative, asserting that if Nally applies, the Board applied it incorrectly. The Superior Court rejected both arguments.
Claimant appealed to the Delaware Supreme Court. On 12/4/25, the Court issued a Decision affirming the Board’s ruling. The Court was clear that Nally assigns liability between successive insurance carriers in cases where an employee seeks compensation for a work-related injury that is causally related to an injury compensated by a previous employer or carrier. In order to shift liability, Nally requires an (1) untoward event and (2) new injury. The question of whether Nally was correctly applied was not a close one. As Dr. Matz testified, the injury was to the same area of the spine, and diagnoses very similar. The nuance of claimant’s first claim being commuted does not mean that the Board applied the wrong standard. The fact that there was no record evidence of symptoms for several years pre-2023 injury also did not change the standard, especially considering claimant’s acceptance of compensation for a permanent injury associated with the 2015 claim, which presupposes that the injury had not healed.
Should you have any questions regarding this Decision, please contact Greg Skolnik, or any other attorney in our Workers’ Compensation Department.
Corey Ferrell v. City of Wilmington, No. 152, 2025 (Del. Dec. 4, 2025).