Crystal L. Samples v. Coastal Personnel

Summary

The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia affirmed the denial of Crystal L. Samples’s workers’ compensation claim against Coastal Personnel. The court held that the evidence did not establish a new compensable injury on June 28, 2019, and that any claim based on a 2017 injury was untimely. The court also concluded that the evidence did not show that an aggravation of a preexisting condition resulted in a discrete new injury.

Holdings

1. Samples failed to carry her burden to establish that she sustained an injury in the course of and resulting from her employment on June 28, 2019.
2. A noncompensable preexisting injury may not be added as a compensable component of a workers’ compensation claim merely because it was aggravated by a compensable injury; only a discrete new injury resulting from the aggravation may be compensable.
3. The Board of Review’s affirmance of the denial did not constitute prejudicial error or present a substantial question of law, and the decision was affirmed.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the evidence established that Samples sustained a new compensable occupational injury on June 28, 2019.
2. Whether aggravation or progression of Samples’s alleged noncompensable 2017 condition resulted in a discrete new injury compensable under the Workers’ Compensation Act.
3. Whether the Board of Review’s affirmance of the denial was clearly erroneous under the applicable workers’ compensation standard of review.

Disposition

affirmed