PHILIP F. MASCENDARO CLAIMANT-APPELLEE
v.
TOWN OF FAIRFIELD EMPLOYER
and
PMA MANAGEMENT CORPORATION OF NEW ENGLAND THIRD-PARTY ADMINISTRATOR RESPONDENTS-APPELLANTS CASE
No. 6304 CRB-4-19-1
Connecticut Workers Compensation
Compensation Review Board Workers Compensation Commission
March 13, 2020
This
Petition for Review from the January 11, 2019 Findings by
Randy L. Cohen, the Commissioner acting for the Fourth
District, was heard October 25, 2019 before a Compensation
Review Board panel consisting of Commission Chairman Stephen
M. Morelli and Commissioners Peter C. Mlynarczyk and David W.
Schoolcraft.[1]
The
claimant was represented by Andrew J. Morrissey, Esq.,
Morrissey, Morrissey & Mooney, L.L.C.
The
respondents were represented by Richard L. Aiken, Jr., Esq.,
Strunk, Dodge, Aiken, Zovas
OPINION
STEPHEN M. MORELLI, CHAIRMAN
The
respondents have appealed from Findings (findings) issued by
Commissioner Randy L. Cohen (commissioner) wherein she
awarded benefits to the claimant pursuant to General Statutes
§ 7-433[2] for an intracerebral hemorrhage he
sustained on February 13, 2016. The respondents, reprising
arguments raised in many similar cases we have recently
considered, argue that this relief is inconsistent with the
precedent in Holston v. New Haven Police Dept., 323
Conn. 607 (2016) and Staurovsky v. Milford Police
Dept., 164 Conn.App. 182 (2016), appeal dismissed, cert.
improvidently granted, 324 Conn. 693 (2017). The claimant
argues that this is a flow-through injury claim similar to
the ones which we have been affirmed in cases such as
Dickerson v. Stamford, 6215 CRB-7-17-8 (September
12, 2018), aff’d, 334 Conn. 870 (2020).[3] Our Supreme
Court’s decisions affirm the Compensation Review
Board’s previous rulings and therefore support the
claimant’s position and therefore we affirm the
Findings.
The
commissioner reached the following findings of fact which are
pertinent to our consideration of this appeal. She noted that
the claimant was a former Fairfield police officer who
retired in 2010 and who during his career was awarded General
Statutes § 7-433c benefits for hypertension on October
30, 1997, receiving a 7.5 percent permanent partial
disability rating. On February 13, 2016, while attempting to
exit his vehicle on a cold day, the claimant sustained an
intracerebral hemorrhage. He was brought to Bridgeport
Hospital and when he was discharged on February 22, 2016, the
discharge diagnosis identified his ailment as,
“Thalmatic hemorrhage: likely secondary to hypertensive
crisis.” Findings, ¶ 8, quoting Claimant’s
Exhibit D.
Subsequent
to the incident, the claimant has sought temporary total
disability benefits arguing that his compensable hypertension
was a substantial contributing factor in the development of
his intracerebral (thalmatic) hemorrhage. In the alternative,
he sought an increase in his permanent partial disability
rating to 32 percent for hypertension. The respondents,
citing Holston, supra, and Staurovsky, supra, argued this
ailment was a separate medical condition and therefore
outside the scope of the existing compensable injury award.
Therefore, they denied liability for temporary total
disability benefits and further argued that the increase in
permanency rating due to hypertension was only from 7.5
percent to 17 percent, an increase of 9.5 percent.
The
claimant’s medical expert, Donald Rocklin, M.D., opined
that hypertension was a substantial factor in causing his
intracerebral hemorrhage. Rocklin further testified that he
concurs with the AMA Guidelines, that...
