Lloyd W. Johnson v. West Virginia Office of Insurance Commissioner and Kanawha Stone Company, Inc.

Summary

The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals affirmed decisions denying Lloyd W. Johnson's requests to reopen his workers' compensation claim for additional permanent partial disability and temporary total disability benefits. The court held that the permanent partial disability request was untimely, that prior reopening denials had become final, and that the record did not support remand concerning an additional lumbar diagnosis.

Holdings

1. A request to reopen a workers’ compensation claim for an additional permanent partial disability award must be made within five years of the initial permanent disability award under West Virginia Code § 23-4-16(a)(2). Johnson’s request, filed more than seven years after the initial award, was untimely.
2. Johnson did not qualify for the exception to the five-year reopening period recognized in Hammons because his ability to file timely was not hindered by significant litigation delays and no new diagnosis had been added to his claim.
3. A claimant may not relitigate denials of workers’ compensation reopening requests after failing to protest those decisions and allowing them to become final.
4. Johnson was not entitled to a remand for a decision on requests to add a lumbar disc protrusion as a compensable condition.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Johnson’s 2013 request to reopen his workers’ compensation claim for an additional permanent partial disability award was timely under West Virginia Code § 23-4-16(a)(2).
2. Whether Johnson qualified for an exception to the five-year reopening period under Hammons v. West Virginia Office of the Insurance Commissioner.
3. Whether Johnson was entitled to reopen the claim for additional temporary total disability benefits despite his failure to protest earlier denials of reopening requests.
4. Whether the case should be remanded for a decision on physicians’ requests to add a lumbar disc protrusion as a compensable condition.

Disposition

affirmed