Akef v. BASF Corp.

This case presents the issue of whether an employee’s material misrepresentation of a preexisting medical condition bars a claim for worker’s compensation. The Judge of Compensation found that the reliance by the employer on the employee’s purposeful and knowing misrepresentation bars the employee from seeking a worker’s compensation award for an occupational disease that was the subject of such misrepresentations. The Appellate Division, in a reported decision by Judge Dreier, reversed. 275 N.J.Super. 30, 645 A.2d 158 (1994).

We affirm the judgment of the Appellate Division substantially for…