The Applicant filed a specific injury claim against his employer, an automotive parts manufacturer. The Applicant claimed that he injured multiple body parts and stated that he immediately felt pain on the day of the incident. He promptly reported the claim. The Applicant was later terminated for cause.
This Applicant also had a concurrent workers compensation claim against the State Compensation Insurance Fund (SCIF) with a different employer. We were able to subpoena the records from his medical treatment specialists at the facility he was being treated at for his subsequent workers’ compensation claim and we found that four days after the said incident with the automotive parts manufacture had occurred, the Applicant had an orthopedic follow up and did not mention the specific injury from the other employer, just his claim against SCIF.
We deposed the Applicant & he testified that he told several co-workers as well as his supervisor of his work related injury right when it had occurred.
The matter went forward to trial & we were able to secure witnesses from the employer. At trial, the Applicant testified that he only told the employer and he did not tell any other person. We used the deposition to impeach the Applicant. We had the employer and the other co-workers testify. They testified that the Applicant never reported the injury and that he was working his normal job duties at the time of the claimed injury. We were also able to rebut the Applicant’s testimony with the statements he made to his primary treating physician with regards to the mechanism of injury.
The Judge issued a Take Nothing Award in favor of the Defendant. In his decision, the Judge stated that he did not find Applicant to be credible. The Judge also used the defense witness’ testimony, as well as the medical report from his concurrent workers compensation claim.