Arsenault v. J.A. Thurston Co.

[¶ 1] J.A. Thurston Co., a self-insured employer, appeals from decisions of a hearing officer of the Workers’ Compensation Board (Goodnough, HO) approving a lump sum settlement between Francis J. Arsenault and an insurer responsible for a prior injury to Arsenault and dismissing the self-insured employer’s petition for apportionment. Because the motion for approval of a lump sum settlement and the petition for apportionment were both pending before the hearing officer at the same time, we conclude that the hearing officer exceeded the bounds of his discretion when he approved a lump sum…