State Accident Insurance Fund Corp. v. Phipps

SAIF seeks review of a Workers’ Compensation Board order which reversed the referee’s determination that claimant had suffered a new injury and assigned SAIF responsibility for claimant’s back condition. SAIF argues that, even though there is “no question [but] that there has been an aggravation in the medical sense,” claimant did not suffer an aggravation in the “legal sense.” SAIF contends that the Board misunderstood and misapplied the rules governing successive injuries. We disagree and affirm.

Claimant first compensably injured his back in 1979 while employed as an electrician by American…