by Alissa C. Atkins, Esq.

Last month, the Court of Appeals of Ohio issued a decision allowing the recovery of both death and PPD benefits for the same incident. The claim involved a worker named Dhimitraq Taluri, who fell approximately thirty feet through a roof while performing demolition work. He landed on his head, and suffered massive brain hemorrhages as well as multiple skull fractures. He initially survived the fall but died four and a half hours later at Grant Medical Center. After death benefits were granted by the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, the claimant’s wife sought the Ohio equivalent of permanent partial disability benefits for the loss of use of the claimant’s arms, legs, eyes and ears. The Board issued a ruling requiring the lump sum payment of $959,175 (1,225 weeks of permanent partial disability benefits) to Mrs. Taluri to compensate for her husband’s loss of the ability to use his arms, legs, eyes and ears for the hours in which he remained unresponsive before he passed away.

The trial included testimony from the treating doctor, who testified that he attempted to revive the claimant for approximately 75 minutes. During that period of time, the claimant had virtually no use of his arms or legs. Although there was no evidence that there was anything wrong with his vision or hearing, had the claimant lived his brain would have been unable to process visual or auditory messages, rendering him blind and deaf. Therefore, PPD benefits were awarded in addition to the death benefits.

The rate of benefits allowed under Ohio law is significantly greater than that allowed in Georgia, which currently places a cap of $525 on weekly benefits, while Mr. Taluri’s widow was entitled to $783 per week. If a similar award were issued in Georgia, the PPD exposure would be 1,350 weeks of benefits, although these would be worth a maximum of $708,750. However, the Georgia Court of Appeals determined in 1968 that payment of compensation for specific body part injuries was to be paid in lieu of all other compensation. Benton v. United States Cas. Co., 118 Ga. App. 804 (1968). Therefore, we would argue that there would be no possible way a widow could recover both death benefits and PPD benefits under Georgia law.