Newport Elks Club v. Hays

Employer seeks review of an order of the Workers’ Compensation Board which reversed the referee’s decision upholding employer’s “backup denial.” The issue is whether employer proved that claimant made a material misrepresentation that induced the initial acceptance of the claim. We conclude that it did and reverse.

Claimant began working for employer as a bartender in 1980. On October 12, 1983, she filed a workers’ compensation claim, alleging that she had sustained an industrial injury about ten months earlier, in December, 1982. Employer accepted the claim on October 28, 1983. Beginning in…