Court Says Worker’s Widow Can’t Claim His Accrued TTD Benefits
WorkCompCentral November 14, 2016
In November, 2016, WorkCompCentral, a website devoted to workers’ compensation education and news, published Court Says Worker’s Widow Can’t Claim His Accrued TTD Benefits, by Sherri Okamoto, describing the complicated path of State ex rel. Sanders v. Indus. Comm., 2016-Ohio-7704, which began in 2012 when Thomas Sanders, working for Wyandot, Inc., a food manufacturer in Marion, Ohio, injured his leg.
Sanders died of causes unrelated to his injury in 2014 while pursuing continued temporary total disability benefits (TTD), and his widow attempted to continue the pursuit after his passing. An Ohio appellate court would eventually rule that the widow was not entitled to the TTD benefits accrued before her husband’s death.
Barbara Knapic, the current chair of the Ohio State Bar Workers’ Compensation Law Committee, described the case as “very fact-specific,” but also said it was “an interesting case,” and that the Court of Appeals "legally had it right," that there was "some evidence" to support denying the widow's claim.