Resignation to move to California where a workers’ compensation claimant was not professionally licensed was held by the Ohio Supreme Court last week to deprive the injured worker of temporary total disability “TTD”) benefits. The Court affirmed that voluntary abandonment is an affirmative defense to a TTD claim. Ruling for the employer, the Court noted that had the claimant not been injured she would have experienced the same wage loss upon relocating to California without the proper certification. Conversely, had she stayed in Ohio she would not have experienced any loss. Thus her industrial injury was not the “but for” cause of her lost earnings. State ex rel. Quest Diagnostics, Inc. v. Industrial Commission, 2023-Ohio- 2280. Quitting can cost a loss of workers’ compensation benefits.

Written by Partner Keith Savidge.
For more information, contact any member of SSEG’s workers’ compensation practice group.