State ex rel. B.O.C. v. Industrial Commission

Two questions are directed at claimant’s layoff: (1) Is the issue res judicata or moot? and (2) If not, does layoff bar compensation for temporary total disability here? We answer both inquiries in the negative and for the following reasons affirm the appellate court’s judgment.

Prior to the period at issue, claimant received other compensation for temporary total disability related to the injury. Claimant asserts that because B.O.C. never raised the layoff issue then, it is barred by res judicata from doing so now. We disagree.

Res judicata operates “to preclude the relitigation of a point of…