2011 Ohio Supreme Court Decisions
This page lists Ohio Supreme Court workers' compensation decisions from 2011. Decisions which adopt the decision of a lower court or Magistrate, or which decide a case based on a previous decision, are excluded. Click on the case name to see the full text of a case on the Ohio Supreme Court's web site.December 2011
December 20, 2011
Sears Roebuck & Co., State ex rel. v. Indus. Comm. (12/20/11)
Medical: Commission abused its discretion by ordering payment of medical bill when there was no evidence indicating potential connection between allowed condition and treatment.
Vote:
7-0
Opinion by: Per Curiam
December 1, 2011
Gonzales, State ex rel. v. Morgan (12/1/11)
Permanent Total: Commission did not abuse discretion by denying permanent total based on failure of injured worker to participate in vocational rehabilitation where he was medically capable of sustained remunerative employment and had not attempted rehabilitation but been prevented from completing rehabilitation due to circumstances beyond his control.
Vote:
7-0
Opinion by: Per Curiam
November 2011
November 30, 2011
George, State ex rel. v. Indus. Comm. (11/30/11)
Medical: Inconsistencies in doctor's report which do not affect validity of doctor's opinion that surgery is not necessary due to allowed condition do not invalidate report.
Vote:
7-0
Opinion by: Per Curiam
November 17, 2011
Donohoe, State ex rel. v. Indus. Comm. (11/17/11)
VSSR: Eyewitness evidence is not required for Commission to find a VSSR occurred and a Commission order which can be interpreted to deny a VSSR award because there was no eyewitness evidence is invalid.
Vote:
7-0
Opinion by: Per Curiam
October 2011
October 4, 2011
Cinergy Corp./Duke Energy, State ex rel. v. Heber (10/4/11)
Permanent Total: Injured worker is not required to provide medical evidence prepared at the time of retirement to establish voluntary nature of retirement because Commission is entitled to draw inferences from any evidence submitted to determine about whether or not a retirement was voluntary.
Vote:
7-0
Opinion by: Per Curiam
September 2011
September 29, 2011
Mackey, State ex rel. v. Ohio Dept. of Edn. (9/29/11)
Continuing Jurisdiction: Commission's failure to address retirement issue in permanent total order was a clear mistake of law which justified exercise of continuing jurisdiction.
Vote:
7-0
Opinion by: Per Curiam
September 7, 2011
Ohio Bur. of Workers’ Comp. v. McKinley (9/7/11)
Trial Practice: Six year statute of limitations applies to a claim by an R.C. 4123.931 statutory subrogee seeking to recover its subrogation interest.
Vote:
6-0, 1 concurs in judgment
Opinion by: Cupp
August 2011
<< No decisions indexed >>
July 2011
July 7, 2011
Starkey v. Builders FirstSource Ohio Valley, L.L.C. (7/7/11)
Trial Practice: An injured worker can pursue a claim for aggravation of a condition on an R.C. 4123.512 appeal to court even if the issue of aggravation had not been considered at the administrative level.
Vote:
6-1
Opinion by: Lanzinger
July 5, 2011
Aaron Rents, Inc., State ex rel. v. Ohio Bur. of Workers’ Comp. (7/5/11)
Employer: BWC must explain reason why it retroactively (instead of prospectively) reclassified employees so employer can know reason reclassification was retroactive and court can properly review the decision.
Vote:
7-0
Opinion by: Per Curiam
June 2011
June 29, 2011
Lackey, State ex rel. v. Indus. Comm. (6/29/11)
Temporary Total: Commission did not abuse its discretion finding that retirement was unrelated to injury. Because injured worker did not return to job market after retirement, injured worker was not entitled to temporary total.
Vote:
7-0
Opinion by: Per Curiam
June 16, 2011
Paneto, State ex rel. v. Matos (6/16/11)
Amputation/Loss of Use: Permanent total award which had since been terminated did not constitute new and changed circumstances to reopen loss of use issue.
Vote:
7-0
Opinion by: Per Curiam
June 9, 2011
Sutton v. Tomco Machining, Inc. (6/9/11)
Retaliatory Discharge: R.C. 4123.90 creates a clear public policy against retaliatory discharge which permits a tort claim for wrongful discharge when the discharge is based on a workplace injury but occurs before the workers' compensation claim is filed; the remedy for such a wrongful discharge claim is limited to the remedies set forth in R.C. 4123.90.
Vote:
4-3
Opinion by: O'Connor
Baker, State ex rel. v. Coast to Coast Manpower, L.L.C. (6/9/11)
Amputation/Loss of Use: Commission did not abuse its discretion denying loss of vision award where cataract surgery corrected vision and uncorrected vision never reached threshhold of 25%; surgical removal of cornea does not require loss of vision award.
Vote:
3-3, 1 concurs separately
Opinion by: Lundberg Stratton
May 2011
May 24, 2011
Fairfield City Schools, State ex rel. v. Indus. Comm. (5/24/11)
Employer: Commission did not abuse its discretion by finding that employer was not entitled to handicap reimbursement because employee's hypertension did not qualify as a cardiac disease.
Vote:
7-0
Opinion by: Per Curiam
April 2011
<< No decisions indexed >>
March 2011
<< No decisions indexed >>
February 2011
February 10, 2011
Kroger Co., State ex rel. v. Johnson (2/10/11)
Amputation/Loss of Use: Medical evidence which indicated that injured worker had a functional loss of use of the hand was internally inconsistent and did not support award for loss of use because doctor only indicated 27% loss of function in the hand.
Vote:
7-0
Opinion by: Per Curiam
January 2011
<< No decisions indexed >>