by KPMLAW | Jan 18, 2016 | KPMBlog, News, Uncategorized, Updates
What should an employer do when an employee announces plans to retire on a definite date? Get the employee a gold watch? Plan a luncheon? Maybe the best answer, at least from a workers’ compensation perspective, is to bid him adieu, immediately. A nightmarish situation can develop if an employee announces his retirement to be effective on a definite date in the future, and then gets injured on the job. This factual scenario was recently addressed by the Supreme Court of Virginia in McKeller v. Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding, Inc. , 2015 Va. Lexis 14. In McKellar, on April 1, 2010 the Claimant advised his employer that he was retiring effective May 1, 2010. On April 15, 2010 the Claimant sustained a compensable injury by accident. The Claimant was placed on restricted duty through the end of April. He retired on May 1, 2010. However, sometime after his retirement the Claimant was found to be totally disabled. The Claimant then filed a claim with the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission, seeking temporary total disability benefits. The Deputy Commissioner awarded compensation and medical benefits, finding that although the Claimant was retired his total incapacity entitled him to benefits. The Full Commission, in a 2-1 decision, affirmed the award of medical benefits but reversed the award of compensation, reasoning that the wage loss would have occurred regardless of his compensable injury. The Court of Appeals affirmed the decision from the Commission, concluding that the Claimant’s retirement, not his injury, caused his loss of compensation because the record was devoid of evidence that the Claimant sought or held income-producing employment after his retirement and...
