Alhamarshah v. Salem, 2016 Ohio 7668

In 2009 Mustafa Alhamarshah fell while working on property owned by Mohamed Salem and was paralyzed; BWC initially allowed his claim and awarded medical benefits and TTD.
Salem (through a friend) faxed documents to BWC challenging the employer-employee relationship; BWC construed the materials as an appeal and forwarded them to the Industrial Commission, which later found Salem substantially complied with appeal requirements.
On remand the commission ultimately disallowed Alhamarshah’s claim (finding he was not an employee) and affirmed that denial through February 3, 2012 orders.
Alhamarshah filed (and later voluntarily dismissed) a common-pleas R.C. 4123.512 appeal, pursued mandamus to challenge the commission’s allowance of Salem’s appeal (denied by this court and the Ohio Supreme Court), and then refiled a R.C. 4123.512 appeal within the savings period.
At trial in common pleas court Alhamarshah moved for a directed verdict arguing the commission improperly accepted Salem’s administrative appeal; the court denied the motion and submitted only the participation question to the jury, which found against Alhamarshah.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether the trial court should have granted a directed verdict that Salem did not validly appeal BWC’s initial order (i.e., whether the commission erred in finding substantial compliance)	Alhamarshah: the commission’s allowance of Salem’s appeal was not valid and is reviewable in common pleas; therefore directed verdict appropriate.	Salem/BWC: R.C. 4123.512 review is limited to right-to-participate merits; the common pleas court need not address procedural validity of the administrative appeal.	Denied — court held Alhamarshah could appeal the commission’s decision to accept an appeal (per Ohio Supreme Court), but he failed to timely identify the March 22, 2011 commission order in his notice/complaint, so trial properly limited to issues noticed.

State ex rel. Alhamarshah v. Indus. Comm., 142 Ohio St.3d 524 (2015) (Alhamarshah II) (commission’s decision to accept an appeal is appealable under R.C. 4123.512)
Afrates v. Lorain, 63 Ohio St.3d 22 (1992) (R.C. 4123.512 review is for right to participate/continue to participate decisions)
Consolidation Coal Co. v. Indus. Comm., 18 Ohio St.3d 281 (1985) (discussing appealability of commission jurisdictional determinations)
Texler v. D.O. Summers Cleaners & Shirt Laundry Co., 81 Ohio St.3d 677 (1998) (directed verdict tests legal sufficiency of evidence)
Anello v. Fufziger, 48 Ohio App.3d 28 (1st Dist. 1988) (court decisions interpreting statutes operate retrospectively as declaring preexisting law)