Sec. 31-294c. Notice of claim for compensation. Notice contesting liability. Exception for dependents of certain deceased employees. - Connecticut Statutes

      Sec. 31-294c. Notice of claim for compensation. Notice contesting liability. Exception for dependents of certain deceased employees. (a) No proceedings for compensation under the provisions of this chapter shall be maintained unless a written notice of claim for compensation is given within one year from the date of the accident or within three years from the first manifestation of a symptom of the occupational disease, as the case may be, which caused the personal injury, provided, if death has resulted within two years from the date of the accident or first manifestation of a symptom of the occupational disease, a dependent or dependents, or the legal representative of the deceased employee, may make claim for compensation within the two-year period or within one year from the date of death, whichever is later. Notice of a claim for compensation may be given to the employer or any commissioner and shall state, in simple language, the date and place of the accident and the nature of the injury resulting from the accident, or the date of the first manifestation of a symptom of the occupational disease and the nature of the disease, as the case may be, and the name and address of the employee and of the person in whose interest compensation is claimed. An employee of the state shall send a copy of the notice to the Commissioner of Administrative Services. As used in this section, "manifestation of a symptom" means manifestation to an employee claiming compensation, or to some other person standing in such relation to him that the knowledge of the person would be imputed to him, in a manner that is or should be recognized by him as symptomatic of the occupational disease for which compensation is claimed.

      (b) Whenever liability to pay compensation is contested by the employer, he shall file with the commissioner, on or before the twenty-eighth day after he has received a written notice of claim, a notice in accord with a form prescribed by the chairman of the Workers' Compensation Commission stating that the right to compensation is contested, the name of the claimant, the name of the employer, the date of the alleged injury or death and the specific grounds on which the right to compensation is contested. The employer shall send a copy of the notice to the employee in accordance with section 31-321. If the employer or his legal representative fails to file the notice contesting liability on or before the twenty-eighth day after he has received the written notice of claim, the employer shall commence payment of compensation for such injury or death on or before the twenty-eighth day after he has received the written notice of claim, but the employer may contest the employee's right to receive compensation on any grounds or the extent of his disability within one year from the receipt of the written notice of claim, provided the employer shall not be required to commence payment of compensation when the written notice of claim has not been properly served in accordance with section 31-321 or when the written notice of claim fails to include a warning that (1) the employer, if he has commenced payment for the alleged injury or death on or before the twenty-eighth day after receiving a written notice of claim, shall be precluded from contesting liability unless a notice contesting liability is filed within one year from the receipt of the written notice of claim, and (2) the employer shall be conclusively presumed to have accepted the compensability of the alleged injury or death unless the employer either files a notice contesting liability on or before the twenty-eighth day after receiving a written notice of claim or commences payment for the alleged injury or death on or before such twenty-eighth day. An employer shall be entitled, if he prevails, to reimbursement from the claimant of any compensation paid by the employer on and after the date the commissioner receives written notice from the employer or his legal representative, in accordance with the form prescribed by the chairman of the Workers' Compensation Commission, stating that the right to compensation is contested. Notwithstanding the provisions of this subsection, an employer who fails to contest liability for an alleged injury or death on or before the twenty-eighth day after receiving a written notice of claim and who fails to commence payment for the alleged injury or death on or before such twenty-eighth day, shall be conclusively presumed to have accepted the compensability of the alleged injury or death.

      (c) Failure to provide a notice of claim under subsection (a) of this section shall not bar maintenance of the proceedings if there has been a hearing or a written request for a hearing or an assignment for a hearing within a one-year period from the date of the accident or within a three-year period from the first manifestation of a symptom of the occupational disease, as the case may be, or if a voluntary agreement has been submitted within the applicable period, or if within the applicable period an employee has been furnished, for the injury with respect to which compensation is claimed, with medical or surgical care as provided in section 31-294d. No defect or inaccuracy of notice of claim shall bar maintenance of proceedings unless the employer shows that he was ignorant of the facts concerning the personal injury and was prejudiced by the defect or inaccuracy of the notice. Upon satisfactory showing of ignorance and prejudice, the employer shall receive allowance to the extent of the prejudice.

      (d) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a) of this section, a dependent or dependents of a deceased employee seeking compensation under section 31-306 who was barred by a final judgment in a court of law from filing a claim arising out of the death of the deceased employee, whose date of injury was between June 1, 1991, and June 30, 1991, and whose date of death was between November 1, 1992, and November 30, 1992, because of the failure of the dependent to timely file a separate death benefits claim, shall be allowed to file a written notice of claim for compensation not later than one year after July 8, 2005, and the commissioner shall have jurisdiction to determine such dependent's claim.

      (P.A. 91-32, S. 11, 41; 91-339, S. 47, 55; P.A. 93-228, S. 8, 35; 93-419, S. 8, 9; P.A. 05-230, S. 2.)

      History: P.A. 91-339 amended Subsec. (b) to change "commissioners" to "chairman of the workers' compensation commission"; P.A. 93-228 amended Subsec. (b) to change the circumstances under which a conclusive presumption of employer liability is established and to allow an employer who successfully contests liability for a claim to recover compensation paid to the claimant, effective July 1, 1993; P.A. 93-419 made technical change in Subsec. (b), replacing "commended" with "commenced", effective July 1, 1993; P.A. 05-230 added new Subsec. (d) re jurisdiction of commissioner over specified claim of dependent or dependents of deceased employee, effective July 8, 2005, and applicable to claims pending on or filed on and after that date.

      Cited. 228 C. 1. Sec. 31-294 (repealed) cited. Id. Cited. 231 C. 529. Cited. 232 C. 780. Sec. 31-294 cited. Id. Cited. 237 C. 1. Cited. 239 C. 19. Workers' compensation legislation is remedial and should be broadly construed to accomplish its humanitarian purpose. 252 C. 596. Where workers' compensation appeal involves issue of statutory construction that has not been subjected to judicial scrutiny, Supreme Court has plenary power to review the administrative decision. Id. HIV is an occupational disease for correction officers who are members of emergency response units which are special teams of correction officers that respond to major disturbances and riots, and, therefore plaintiff's notice of claim was timely filed under statute; HIV is peculiar to and distinctively associated with decedent's occupation as a correction officer in an emergency response unit because of the direct causal connection between the specific duties of his employment, which required him to interact with inmates with a high HIV infection rate and in a manner that greatly increased the risk of contracting HIV and the AIDS the decedent contracted. 268 C. 753. Fact that an occupational disease cannot be qualified as such until a causal connection with exposure at employee's workplace can be established compels the conclusion that such a connection is a prerequisite to commencement of the statute of limitations for making a claim for an occupational disease. 280 C. 723.

      Cited. 38 CA 1; Id., 73. Cited. 44 CA 465. Employer's first report of injury form and an attorney's letter taken together meet statutory requirement of written notice of claim. 52 CA 194. Workers' compensation review board properly concluded that, under the totality of the circumstances, completion of accident investigation form by defendant's fire department indicating that plaintiff had been transported to the hospital for high blood pressure, plaintiff's filing of first report of injury for high blood pressure with defendant's workers' compensation division and the employer's investigative report prepared by the defendant's workers' compensation division for defendant's controller's office constituted "substantial compliance" with notice requirements. 63 CA 570. Does not require that notice of injury by employee include statutory reference. 70 CA 321.

      Subsec. (a):

      Cited. 239 C. 408. Cited. 240 C. 788. Cited. 242 C. 570. Notice of claim for repetitive trauma injury is sufficient to support a motion to preclude if it provides adequate information as to period of time over which the injury is alleged to have occurred sufficient to allow employer to make timely investigation of the claim. 252 C. 596. Service on employer of amended complaint in third party action and employer's acknowledgment that it "may" become obligated to pay benefits to plaintiff are not sufficient to establish that employer had actual notice of plaintiff's intent to seek survivor's benefits as a result of decedent's death. 265 C. 525. Statute of limitations in Subsec. applies to all potential claims of employee's estate or his dependents and requires that a compensable claim be filed within the applicable limitations period, irrespective of whether initial claim is filed by the employee, the employee's estate after his death, or the decedent employee's dependents; proviso is not a condition precedent for commencement of dependents' claims, but rather a modified limitations period for commencement of such claims. 283 C. 813.

      Cited. 40 CA 446. Cited. 42 CA 803. Cited. 44 CA 465. Cited. 45 CA 707. "Accident" and "occupational disease" must be read broadly enough so that even an injury that is defined as stemming from repetitive trauma under Sec. 31-275(8) may be deemed to fall into one of the two categories. 56 CA 90. Without timely written notice of claim, commissioner lacks subject matter jurisdiction over such claim. 68 CA 590. Separate notice of claim not required when dependent pursues derivative claim for death benefit. 71 CA 140.

      Subsec. (b):

      Cited. 241 C. 692. Notice to contest liability must state both date of alleged injury and specific reasons for contesting compensation. 252 C. 596. Compensability, in terms of whether a type of injury falls within scope of the act, is a jurisdictional fact that would allow employer to contest liability beyond the time frame allotted by Subsec.; hence, because the emotional impairment claimed by plaintiff in the present case does not fall within scope of the act, commissioner and board initially properly denied plaintiff's motion to preclude defendants from contesting liability. 270 C. 532. P.A. 93-228 did not alter status quo that if employer neither timely pays nor timely contests liability, conclusive presumption of compensability attaches and employer is barred from contesting employee's right to receive compensation on any ground or extent of employee's disability. 286 C. 102.

      Cited. 30 CA 295. Cited. 40 CA 446. Employer not precluded from challenging commissioner's subject matter jurisdiction. 64 CA 1. Issue of compensability of an injury does not implicate commissioner's subject matter jurisdiction and, accordingly, statutory presumption of liability cannot be circumvented. Id. Does not implicate insurer's right to raise the defense of lack of coverage against an employer. 67 CA 361.

      Subsec. (c):

      Employer's insurer's payment of medical bills during one-year period constituted the furnishing of medical treatment. 47 CA 530. Employee's claim was not time barred because he failed to file notice of claim that specifically referenced all of his injuries. 48 CA 357.