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Safeway Stores9/26/2002
e have applied a credit to an employer's liability for workers' compensation benefits based on principles of unjust enrichment where the injured employee has been otherwise compensated for the same injury. See 4934, Inc. v. District of Columbia Dep't of Employment Servs., 605 A.2d 50, 55 (D.C. 1992) (employer entitled to credit for $30,000 gratuitous payment made by government of Brazil to claimant for work-related injury). Safeway claimed that it was entitled to a credit of twenty-eight percent - the percentage of the disability it says was owing to Watson's 1990 work injury. Watson had filed a claim for benefits in Maryland related to that injury, and settled with his employer for $7000. Both the hearing examiner's compensation order and the Director's decision are silent on the issue, presumably because Safeway's request for a "credit" of the percentage of the disability attributable to Watson's pre-existing injury was tantamount to apportionment, contrary to D.C. law. Many factors can influence a party's decision to settle, and the amount of settlement. Here there is no evidence of a correlation between the $7000 amount for which Watson settled his prior claim and the credit of twenty-eight percent Safeway requested. Therefore, the basis for applying unjust enrichment theory here, that "as between the two persons, it is unjust for [Watson] to retain" the benefits, or that he would have received a "double recovery," has not been established. Id. at 56. In light of Safeway's request for a twenty-eight percent credit and the dearth of evidence or any fact-finding concerning the settlement, we perceive no error in the agency's implicit rejection of Safeway's request for a twenty-eight percent credit.
For the foregoing reasons, the agency's grant of benefits to Watson is
Affirmed in part and reversed and remanded in part.
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 District of Columbia Personal Injury Attorneys
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