State ex rel. Ford Motor Co. v. Industrial Commission

Summary

The Ohio Supreme Court held that a workers’ compensation claimant’s minimal activities in maintaining his own landscaping business did not constitute work barring temporary total disability compensation. The activities, including signing employee paychecks and fueling and moving equipment, were only indirectly related to generating income and did not themselves produce income. The court affirmed the denial of Ford Motor Company’s request to declare the compensation overpaid.

Holdings

1. A claimant's minimal activities in a self-owned business do not constitute work barring temporary total disability compensation when the activities do not themselves generate income and are only indirectly related to income generation, provided the activities are genuinely minimal and not medically inconsistent with the claimant's alleged inability to return to the former position.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Posey's limited administrative and business-preservation activities for his lawn-care business constituted work that prohibited receipt of temporary total disability compensation.
2. Whether the Industrial Commission abused its discretion by refusing to declare Posey's temporary total disability compensation overpaid.

Disposition

affirmed