Name
Seekins v. International Paper
Insurance Company
Sedgwick Claims Management Services
Date Decided
June 18, 2014
Panel Members
Sue Jerome
Evelyn Knopf
Mike Stovall
Categories
Partial Incapacity Partial Incapacity Permanent Impairment Res JudicataTags
Pre-Existing Permanent Impairment Neck
File Size
228 KB
DownloadSummary from the Troubh Heisler Attorneys
The panel affirmed the hearing officer’s decision awarding permanent impairment benefits for a 1991 neck injury, despite prior Board decisions finding that Seekins’s ongoing neck symptoms and incapacity were due to a pre-existing condition and not the 1991 injury. The hearing officer ruled, and the panel agreed, that permanent impairment has no relation to incapacity, and the prior decisions finding no continuing injury-related incapacity did not require a finding of no permanent impairment