By Fred J. Lewis and Mallory Mitton
In the Idaho worker’s compensation decision of Davis v. Hammack Management Inc., decide by the Idaho Industrial Commission on October 6, 2015, the claimant in the case filed a petition for the Idaho Industrial Commission to rule on whether the then new decision from the Idaho Supreme Court of Corgatelli v. Steel West, Inc., applied to the lump sum settlement agreement (LSSA) in the Davis case. Davis, the claimant, argued that his LSSA “unfairly requires Petitioner to waive his full statutory total permanent disability benefits, and adversely affects the timing of ISIF’s total permanent disability payments. Petitioner also wishes the Commission to evaluate the LSSA for ambiguity, and to order the payment of attorney’s fees by Employer and ISIF because they have contested Petitioner’s request for the “full measure” of his TPD benefits”. To summarize, the claimant believed that his LSSA was not giving him all of the benefits that he was entitled to.
The Industrial Commission ruled that Idaho Code section 72-318 prevented the claimant from attaching the LSSA, even though Corgatelli would have dictated a different outcome.
The moral of the story in Idaho worker’s compensation cases you have to make sure that you get everything you want in the Lump Sum Settlement Agreement because once the Commission signs off and approves it, there is no going back. Even if a the Idaho Supreme Court decides a case in favor of claimants like Corgatelli, you are stuck with the deal you struck in the LSSA that was then approved by the Idaho Industrial Commission. There is no way you can go back and ask for more. You cannot change the finalized LSSA – a deal is a deal.