27 Conn. App. 483 | Conn. App. Ct. | 1992
This appeal concerns the compensation review division’s denial of the plaintiff’s workers’ compensation claim. The plaintiff argues that the review division incorrectly held that payment of her full annual teacher’s salary satisfied the obligation of the defendant Waterbury board of education under the workers’ compensation law. We affirm the compensation review division’s decision.
On September 6, 1986, the plaintiff suffered an injury arising out of and within the scope of her employment as a Waterbury public school teacher. The plaintiff received two thirds of her salary as temporary disability payments pursuant to a voluntary agreement signed by both parties and approved by the workers’ compensation commissioner. General Statutes § 31-307.
On June 21, 1988, the defendant filed a notice to discontinue benefits. Two days later, the plaintiff filed an objection to the discontinuance of benefits and a request for an informal hearing before the workers’ compensation commissioner. Following the commissioner’s denial of her claim that she was entitled to disability payments for the weeks of disability occurring in July and August, 1988, the plaintiff appealed to the compensation review division. The review division determined that the plaintiff’s statutory two-thirds benefit amounted to $22,224 and held that if she had not received that sum she was entitled to the difference between the amount she actually received and $22,224. Because the record before it did not furnish complete information on the inclusion of annual salary increments or deduction of federal income tax withholding, the review division could not determine if the plaintiff had received the $22,224 due her. Accordingly, it remanded the matter to the commissioner for the limited purpose of ascertaining the total sum actually paid and, if necessary, for further ruling consistent with its opinion.
The remand to the commissioner raises a threshold question of whether the decision of the compensation review division was a final administrative determina
As a Waterbury public school teacher, the plaintiff was entitled to workers’ compensation benefits pursuant to General Statutes § 31-307 for the two year period during which she was temporarily disabled. The plaintiff is statutorily entitled to two thirds of her annual salary for the period of her temporary disability. Because the plaintiff has received the mandated two thirds of her salary for each of the years involved, the defendant’s obligations under the workers’ compensation law have been satisfied.
The plaintiff assumes that because the review division’s memorandum of decision refers to the collective bargaining agreement, the review division relied on it in determining whether the defendant had met its obligations under the workers’ compensation law. This assumption is incorrect. Despite the memorandum’s language, it is apparent that the review division based its decision on the issue of whether the defendant had paid the plaintiff two thirds of her salary pursuant to
The decision of the compensation review division is affirmed.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.
General Statutes § 31-307 provides in pertinent part: “If any injury for which compensation is provided under the provisions of this chapter results in total incapacity to work, there shall be paid to the injured employee a weekly compensation equal to sixty-six and two-thirds per cent of his average weekly earnings at the time of the injury . . . (Emphasis added.)
Section 5 of the Waterbury teachers association agreement provides: “Whenever a teacher is absent from school as a result of personal injury caused by an accident or an assault, arising out of, and in the course of, his employment, compensable under the Worker’s Compensation Law, he shall be paid, in addition to his compensation payment, an amount which, joined with the compensation payment, will equal his full salary for a period of such absence, and no part of such absence shall be charged to his annual or accumulative sick leave.”