Adding a dependent to an open workers’ compensation death benefits claim does not constitute a separate claim, the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled last week. Furthermore, the court concluded, there is no statutory time limit for the dependent of a deceased employee to request benefits under an open death benefits claim.
The ruling came in an appeal from an order of the New Hampshire Compensation Appeals Board (CAB) that denied the request of Maia Beh, the widow of Gilbert Menke, to be added to the list of dependents for the allocation of workers’ compensation death benefits.
On July 13, 2016, Menke died following a work-related injury. He was survived by his widow, Beh, and their daughter. Although Beh was not married to the decedent, upon his death she became his common law spouse.
The daughter’s workers’ compensation death benefits claim was open and approved less than a year after Menke’s death. But Beh delayed sending her claim while she waited for a probate court order confirming she was Menke’s common law wife.
The CAB denied Beh’s request based on its determination that her request constituted a separate and additional claim for death benefits that was barred by the three-year statute of limitations. Beh appealed to the state Supreme Court.
The state’s high court has now reversed and remanded that CAB ruling, granting Beh her benefits and finding that Beh’s claim for herself was not a new claim but part of the same claim already opened for their daughter.
High Court
The question before the high court was whether the CAB erred when it construed the workers’ compensation law to require that every dependent of an employee suffering a work-related fatality must request death benefits within three years of the employee’s injury, regardless of whether a timely workers’ compensation claim for death benefits has previously been filed. The law provides that compensation for disability, rehabilitation, medical benefits, or death benefits shall be barred unless a claim is filed within three years after the date of injury.
Menke’s estate argued that the timely filing of “a claim” by “any individual dependent” entitles all dependents to benefits, regardless of whether other dependents request benefits after the statute of limitations has run.
The insurer argued that the plain language of the statute bars Beh’s request because it was a new and separate claim made outside the statute of limitations. The carrier also argued that the estate’s interpretation improperly hinged on the use of the singular “a claim” phrasing.
The New Hampshire Supreme Court agreed with the estate and construed “claim” in the law to mean “a demand for compensation, benefits or payment.” The court found that the legislature used the singular form of claim demonstrates that filing a single claim within three years satisfies the statute. There is no language requiring that each of the deceased employee’s dependents file separate claims within the statutory period. If the legislature had intended to include such a requirement, it could have done so, the high court added.
Contrary to the carrier’s assertions, the court said that as long as a timely claim for death benefits is filed by a dependent, the law mandates that death benefits be paid to any of the deceased employee’s dependents who request benefits under an open death benefits claim, regardless of whether that request is made within the limitations period.
The opinion by Justice James Bassett was joined by Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald and Justices Patrick Donovan and Melissa Countway. Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi sat for oral argument but did not participate in the final vote.
Topics Workers' Compensation
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