Matter of Blake v. Niagara Wheatfield Cent. Sch. Dist.

Summary

The New York Appellate Division, Third Department, held that a claimant classified as permanently partially disabled in 2011, while employed at or above preinjury wages, was attached to the labor market at the time of classification. Applying the retroactive 2017 amendment to Workers' Compensation Law § 15(3)(w), the court concluded that the claimant was not required to demonstrate ongoing labor-market attachment for benefits under the earlier claim. The court reversed that portion of the Workers' Compensation Board's amended decision and remitted the matter for further proceedings.

Holdings

1. The due process challenge was unpreserved because it was not raised before the Workers' Compensation Board. In any event, the Special Fund was not aggrieved by the Board's labor-market-attachment determination, and only the Special Fund possessed standing to object to an alleged violation of its own procedural due process rights.
2. The 2017 amendment applied retroactively to Claim No. 1 because claimant had been classified with a permanent partial disability before the amendment, was attached to the labor market at classification by virtue of her full-time employment, and had not previously been found to have voluntarily withdrawn from the labor market or failed to establish attachment.
3. Claimant was not required to demonstrate ongoing attachment to the labor market following her 2011 classification with a permanent partial disability in Claim No. 1.

Questions Presented

1. Whether claimant's procedural due process challenge based on the Special Fund's lack of notice and participation was preserved and, if so, whether claimant could assert the Special Fund's due process rights.
2. Whether Workers' Compensation Law § 15(3)(w), as amended in 2017, applied retroactively to relieve claimant of the requirement to demonstrate ongoing labor-market attachment in Claim No. 1.
3. Whether the Board properly required claimant to demonstrate ongoing labor-market attachment after her 2011 permanent-partial-disability classification.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded