Justia Labor & Employment Law Opinion Summaries

Skylar Meinhardt, a former professional soccer player for the Washington Freedom, sustained a left knee injury in 2001 or 2002. Years later, she developed a right knee disability, which she attributed to compensating for her earlier left knee injury. Meinhardt claimed that her altered gait due to the left knee injury led to the deterioration of her right knee, resulting in pain first reported in 2015 and necessitating surgeries in 2016 and 2019.An Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) denied Meinhardt's workers' compensation claim, mistakenly framing the issue as whether a right knee injury in 2002 was related to the left knee injury in 2001. The ALJ found Meinhardt non-credible, partly because of her prior right knee surgeries in 1996, 1999, and 2001, and because the evidence did not support a right knee injury in 2002. The Compensation Review Board (CRB) affirmed the ALJ's decision, also mischaracterizing the issue as whether a 2002 right knee injury was related to the 2001 left knee injury.The District of Columbia Court of Appeals vacated the CRB's order and remanded the case for further proceedings. The court clarified that the central issue was whether Meinhardt's 2015 right knee disability was causally connected to her 2001-2002 left knee injury. The court found that both the ALJ and CRB had misunderstood the claim, leading to an erroneous denial of benefits. The court also noted that the evidence used to rebut the presumption of compensability, particularly a letter from Dr. Clinton Soppe, was not specific and comprehensive enough, as it incorrectly stated that Meinhardt's right knee pain began acutely in 2016.The case was remanded to the CRB, with instructions to remand it further to the ALJ for reconsideration, focusing on whether the 2015 right knee disability was causally related to the 2001-2002 left knee injury. View "Little v. D.C. Dep't of Employment Services" on Justia Law