A Louisiana state appeals court has reversed a judgment of the Office of Workers’ Compensation Administration, giving the New Orleans Saints a victory in the court room in a case involving a former player, who argued that the club and its worker’s compensation insurer still owed him some compensation after an injury cut short his career.
Specifically, the court found that James Dombrowski had “failed to prove that the Saints’ dollar-for-dollar credit had been exhausted so as to entitle him to workers’ compensation benefits.”
Dombrowski suffered an injury on November 17, 1996, which prevented him from playing in the 1997 season. Pursuant to an injury protection provision contained in the Collective Bargaining Agreement, he received $ 200,000 as wages in 16 weekly payments over the course of the 1997 season. He began receiving weekly compensation benefits in the amount of $ 341 beginning on December 22, 1997, at the conclusion of the 1997 playing season.
Dombrowski believed he was entitled to receive more compensation and sued to enforce that perceived right. After an arduous course of litigation, the case landed in the lap of a Louisiana state appeals court.
The panel of judges in that court noted that “the workers’ compensation judge awarded SEB, medical expenses, and mileage reimbursement to Dombrowski based on her finding that the dollar-for-dollar offset provided for in LSA-R.S. 23:1225(D) was inapplicable in this case.
“In light of the legal error made with respect to this determination, the Saints were only given credit for the 16-week period during which Dombrowski received payments toward the $ 200,000. Upon the expiration of the 16-week period, the credit was considered by the WCJ as having been exhausted, thus entitling Dombrowski to workers’ compensation benefits. Accordingly, the WCJ did not consider whether a dollar-for-dollar credit would have been exhausted by the time Dombrowski filed his disputed claim in 2004.
”In his brief, Dombrowski urged that the Saints had paid for some, but not all, of his medical treatment. Based on the evidence presented, the WCJ found that Dombrowski had shown that he was entitled to reimbursement for $ 2,360.43 for medical expenses and for $ 781.76 in mileage for four round trips from Mandeville, Louisiana, to Houston, Texas. These specific findings have not been assigned as error by the Saints, nor has Dombrowski challenged these findings by way of an appeal or an answer to the Saints’ appeal. As unpaid workers’ compensation benefits to which Dombrowski was entitled, these figures would be applied as a reduction to the Saints’ credit, along with the indemnity benefits that would have otherwise been due since the date of his injury, excepting indemnity benefits to which he would have been entitled for the period of December 22, 1997, through September 29, 1998, which were actually paid by the Saints.”
James Matthew Dombrowski v. New Orleans Saints; Ct. App. Louis., 1st Cir.; 2005 CA 0762, 2006 La. App. LEXIS 1614; 8/2/06
Attorneys or Record: (for the plaintiff) Robert L. Hackett, Atlanta, GA. (for the defendants) Michael H. Rubin, Emily B. Grey, Juston M. O’Brien, McGlinchey Stafford, PLLC, Baton Rouge, LA and David K. Johnson, Johnson, Stiltner, and Rahman, Baton Rouge, LA.
