Summary
The Louisiana Court of Appeal considered whether a former employee’s claim for additional workers’ compensation medical expenses was prescribed under La. R.S. 23:1209. The court held that the one-year prescriptive period applied because the prior benefits were for total and permanent disability, not partial disability, and affirmed dismissal of the claim.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether a workers' compensation claim for medical expenses incurred after termination of total disability benefits is subject to prescription under La. R.S. 23:1209.
- Whether the applicable prescriptive period was one year or three years from the last payment when the claimant received total and permanent disability benefits.
Holdings
- A workers' compensation claim for additional medical expenses is subject to the prescriptive periods in La. R.S. 23:1209, measured from the date of the last payment.
- The one-year prescriptive period applied because the payments received by Lester were total and permanent disability benefits, not partial-disability benefits.
Key quotations
“as long as such claims are not beyond the statutory maximum and the requirements of LSA-R.S. 23:1209 are met, there is no time limitation for assertion of the right to medical expenses.” (655)
“Since the evidence indicates that the benefit payments made to the plaintiff could have only been total and permanent benefit payments, this Court cannot now presume that those payments were partial disability benefits.” (656)
Factual background
Lester lost a foot in a July 1970 workers' compensation accident and was fitted with an artificial limb. The insurer paid total and permanent disability benefits at the statutory maximum and paid $10,044.69 in medical expenses, with the last medical payment made on January 25, 1980. Lester filed suit more than one year later for additional medical expenses incurred in 1981 and 1982.
Procedural history
Lester filed suit on December 22, 1982, seeking $1,390.27 in medical expenses incurred between August 10, 1981, and October 26, 1982. The defendants pleaded one-year prescription under La. R.S. 23:1209, and the trial court dismissed the action. The Louisiana Court of Appeal affirmed.