State News : Washington D.C.

NWCDN is a network of law firms dedicated to protecting employers in workers’ compensation claims.


NWCDN Members regularly post articles and summary judgements in workers’ compensations law in your state.  


Select a state from the dropdown menu below to scroll through the state specific archives for updates and opinions on various workers’ compensation laws in your state.


Contact information for NWCDN members is also located on the state specific links in the event you have additional questions or your company is seeking a workers’ compensation lawyer in your state.


Washington D.C.

FRANKLIN & PROKOPIK

In late October of 2023, legislation was passed temporarily extending emergency legislation from 2022 that previously barred the payment of an award or compensation in the District if the Claimant had received benefits under the laws of any other states. Titled the Parity in Workers’ Compensation Recovery Emergency Amendment Act of 2023, the Act extended the amendment that now allows the payment or award of compensation in the District of Columbia even if the Claimant has received benefits from workers’ compensation claim in any state. The total benefit received, however, will be reduced by any amount received previously. Thus, if the Claimant received any benefits in Maryland and now brings the claim into the District of Columbia, any further awards of compensation will be reduced by any amount received in Maryland. This Act applied to claims pending as of June 28, 2022 and all claims filed after June 28, 2022. Overall, this likely led to an increase in DC workers’ compensation claims as claimants were no longer barred from recovery in DC if they received any form of benefits in other states.

Moving forward, with this temporary legislation only in effect for 90 days with an expiration date of January 24, 2023, Employers and Insurers should continue to monitor for additional legislation as it is likely further temporary legislation will be enacted to extend the benefits associated with this Act. While the Act is no longer in effect, it is unknown what the courts will do for any claims of benefits during the period that is no longer covered if additional legislation is signed into effect. 


District of Columbia Court of Appeals Finds Bus Driver’s Injury Compensable as An Exception to the Going and Coming Rule.

On May 26, 2022, the D.C. Court of Appeals decided the case of Latonya Lee v. District of Columbia Department of Employment Services, 275 A.3d 307. The Court had to decide whether Lee’s (Petitioner) injuries arose out of and in the course of employment. The Petitioner was a WMATA bus driver who was scheduled to work a split shift. The Petitioner finished her first shift and parked her bus at the end of her route, several blocks away from where she started. While the Petitioner was walking back to her vehicle, parked close to the starting point of her bus route, she fell and sustained injuries. The Petitioner then applied for disability benefits. The administrative law judge denied the Petitioner’s claim as compensable as the injuries did not arise out of and in the course of employment, and the Compensation Review Board (CRB) affirmed that decision. The Petitioner appealed to the D.C. Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals reversed the CRB’s ruling as they erroneously relied on the going and coming rule. 

The Court of Appeals found as follows:

 

·         The Court of Appeals applied the potential-risk test and found that the Petitioner’s injuries arose out of and in the course of employment. The risk of falling would not have happened but for the fact that conditions and obligations of employment which placed claimant in a position to walk back to her vehicle.  

·         Similarly, the Court found that the risk of injury was reasonably foreseeable because walking back to her car was reasonable incidental to her employment as the conditions of her employment put her in a position where it would be reasonably expected for her to go back to her original point.

·         Although the general rule is that “going and coming” to and from work is not within the scope of employment, this case fell within the exception since the bus driver is paid for their travel time. Therefore, the hazards of the journey are the obligations of the employer.

 

District of Columbia Court of Appeals Agrees that D.C. Code § 32-1505(b) Is Ambiguous and Remands Back to the Compensation Review Board for Further Consideration.

On July 14, 2022, the D.C. Court of Appeals handed down their decision in Sidnice Hughes-Turner v. District of Columbia Department of Employment Services, 2022 WL 2721060. At issue was whether D.C. Code § 32-1505(b) limits a claimant from receiving more than an aggregate total of 500 weeks of temporary total benefits and “non-schedule” permanent-partial benefits. The Compensation Review Board (CRB) decided that D.C. Code § 32-1505(b) precluded Hughes-Turner (Claimant) from receiving more than an aggregate total of 500 weeks of temporary total benefits and “non-schedule” permanent-partial benefits. In coming to their decision, the CRB relied on the legislative history of the amendments that included § 32-1505(b), and how the section compared to similar benefit caps in Maryland and Virginia. The Claimant appealed the CRB decision to the D.C. Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals vacated the CRB’s decision and remanded the claim back to the CRB for further consideration.

The Court of Appeals found as follows:  

·         The Court of Appeals agreed the statutory language of D.C. Code § 32-1505(b) was ambiguous as to whether the 500-week cap applies in the aggregate to temporary total benefits and permanent partial benefits, or separately to each type of benefit.

·         However, the Court disagreed with the CRB’s interpretation heavily relying on the legislative purpose to create an aggregate cap more in line with 500-week Maryland and Virginia caps, as it was found that Maryland and Virginia took different approaches to the aggravation issue at the time § 32-1505(b) was enacted.

·         Further, the Court decided that although the CRB’s interpretation of § 32-1505(b) was in line with the legislative intent, they failed to address other considerations, such as “the principle that the Workers’ Compensation Act should be interpreted liberally in light of its humanitarian purposes”.  

 

District of Columbia Council Resolution PR24-0783: Parity in Workers’ Compensation Recovery Emergency Declaration Resolution of 2022.

Historically, an injured worker could not receive any workers’ compensation benefits in D.C. if they had ever received benefits for the same accidental injury or death in another state. However, on June 6, 2022, legislation permitting an employee’s access to workers’ compensation benefits in D.C., even if the injured worker has applied for and received benefits in another state, was put forth on an emergency basis. The support for the legislation came from arguments that injured workers were unfairly prevented from accessing the full compensation and benefits since workers’ compensation laws in neighboring states (Maryland and Virginia) were less favorable to the injured workers than in D.C. Although, the legislation included that D.C. courts would be required to reduce damages based on the compensation the claimant already received in the neighboring state, as to not allow overcompensation and manipulation. The legislation was ratified by Mayor Muriel Bowser on June 7, 2022 and will expire on September 26, 2022. 

New District of Columbia Benefit Rates

Effective January 1, 2010, the following are the benefit rates for District of Columbia:

Maximum Weekly Compensation Rate: $1,355.00

Minimum Weekly Compensation Rate: $ 338.75

Supplemental Allowance for Permanent Total and Death Benefits: 5.21% increase

 These same rates have been retained from 2009.

  If you would like benefit rate cards prepared by Franklin & Prokopik detailing the District of Columbia benefit rates from 2001-2010, please contact F&P principal, John P. Rufe, on (301) 745-3900, or by email at jrufe@fandpnet.com. 

 

 COMPENSABILITY

  • To show that an injury is compensable, the employee must “establish that the work event or condition at issue was the cause of the claimed injury,” that is, that the injury is in fact work-related. An accidental injury is compensable under the Workers’ Compensation Act if it “aris[es] out of and in the course of employment.” D.C. Code §32-1501 (12).

            Because the statute is remedial in nature, it affords the claimant a presumption that the injury constitutes a compensable workplace injury. To raise the statutory presumption of compensability, a claimant must make an “initial demonstration” of “both an injury and a relationship between that injury and the employment.”

“The presumption then operates to establish a causal connection between the disability and the work-related event, activity, or requirement.” In other words, the statute creates a two-pronged presumption that (I) the event causing (or contributing to) the disability arose out of and in the course of employment, and (ii) that a medical causal relationship exists between the claimed disability and a work related event.

If the employer proffers substantial evidence to rebut the presumption, then the presumption drops out of the case entirely, and the burden reverts to the claimant to prove his entitlement to benefits by the preponderance of the evidence.

In cases where an employee’s injury arises neither out of a risk directly associated with employment nor out of a risk personal to the employee, this court has employed the positional risk doctrine, explaining that an employee’s injury arises out of his employment “so long as it would not have happened but for the fact that conditions and obligations of the employment placed claimant in a position where he was injured.”

The unexplained fall rule of compensability, even if deemed a corollary to the positional risk doctrine, is not applicable when there is evidence of a possible idiopathic origin to the fall.

 

UTILIZATION REVIEW

   The Compensation Order Review Board has affirmed the statutory requirement that, when an issue arises as to the reasonableness and necessity of medical    treatment, the issue must first be referred to utilization review, prior to requesting a formal administrative hearing thereon. This provision had not been enforced for many years. 

             In April 2010, the DC Court of Appeals ruled that, if reconsideration of the Utilization Review opinion is not timely sought by the medical provider, nevertheless, either party to the Claim may seek a Formal Hearing on the medical reasonableness and necessity issue.

 

 

    Standard of Compensability for Psychological Injury

McCamey v. DOES

 The DC Court of Appeals sitting en banc has overruled several of its prior cases dealing with the standard for compensability of psychological injury.  There are now currently two different standards depending on whether there is a physical injury involved. In the context of physical-mental disabilities, the physical accident is the unexpected occurrence supplying the necessary (and objective) workplace connection. Thus, in cases of physical injury, so long as the claimant proffers competent medical evidence connecting the mental disability to the physical accident (legal causation), the claimant has either established a prima facie case of aggravation or a new injury. The court did not have before it the issue of mental-mental disabilities, where traditionally the question is whether the stresses of the job were so great that they could have caused harm to an average worker. Job stresses are to be measured against the usual stressors or mental stimuli of employment in general. Thus, a claimant must show that his current job conditions are unusually stressful as compared to employment conditions in general, not as compared to his work history. The court appears to question the application of this standard even to mental-mental claims, its primary concern being that the concept seems to conflict with cases of aggravation of a pre-existing condition. The court suggested that the objective standard may not be appropriate in such an instance. No doubt this issue will be addressed in the near future. 

For further inquiries regarding District of Columbia law contact Mr. Rufe on (301) 745-3900, or by email at jrufe@fandpnet.com.

NWCDN DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA WORKERS’ COMPENSATION UPDATE

New District of Columbia Benefit Rates

Effective January 1, 2012, the following are the benefit rates for District of Columbia:

Maximum Weekly Compensation Rate: $1,416.00

Minimum Weekly Compensation Rate: $ 354.00

Supplemental Allowance for Permanent Total and Death Benefits: 5%

If you would like benefit rate cards prepared by Franklin & Prokopik detailing the District of Columbia benefit rates from 2002-2011, please contact F&P Principal, John P. Rufe, on (301) 745-3900, or by email at jrufe@fandpnet.com.