Jones Jones LLC Partner Rosanna Shamash won a Third Department decision in Juanita Jones v. New York City Transit Authority (https://decisions.courts.state.ny.us/ad3/Decisions/2022/534984.pdf). The underlying facts of this decision begin with a Law Judge’s determination that the claimant violated fraud Section 114-a by failing to disclose certain work activities. Ultimately, the Law Judge sanctioned both mandatory and discretionary penalties; meaning that not only would the claimant have to pay money back, but also that she would no longer be qualified to receive any future indemnity payments arising from this claim. Upon appeal of this decision, the NYS Workers’ Compensation Board noted that the RB-89 portion of the claimant’s appeal was not fully completed and therefore the appeal was completely denied. Partner Shamash was able to have this finding upheld before the Third Department despite the claimant raising a newly enacted law, WCL 23-a(1). WCL 23-a(1) states, that “a mistake, omission, defect and/or other irregularity in a {form RB-89} accompanying an application for administrative review …shall not be ground for denial of said application.” Partner Shamash was able to skillfully highlight to the Court that the merits of the case support the finding of fraud and that WCL 23-a(1) does not apply to this matter as the legislation came into effect after the filing of the incomplete RB-89 by the claimant.
Congratulations to Partner Shamash for a great win!
