Panel Upholds Reduced Workers’ Comp Award for Oklahoma Legislator

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An appeals panel has upheld a controversial ruling that Oklahoma state Rep. Mike Christian is due workers’ compensation benefits for injuries he suffered in a 2009 traffic accident. The panel, however, cut the legislator’s award from $61,560 to $51,300.

Christian, R-Oklahoma City, was struck a truck while driving in a personal car with his wife to the Capitol on Feb. 26, 2009. The truck’s driver fled and was never located.

The key issue in the case is whether Christian should even get benefits. Most employees can’t get benefits in workers’ comp court for injuries suffered commuting to or from work. There are exceptions in the law, particularly when an employer pays its employees’ travel expenses.

In July, a workers’ compensation court judge agreed the exception applied to Christian’s case because legislators can get reimbursement for one round trip per week to the Capitol. The trial judge, Bob Lake Grove, also ruled the exception applied even though Christian had waived reimbursement.

The state House of Representatives and its insurance carrier, CompSource Oklahoma, appealed and asked the panel to vacate the award, arguing it was “contrary to law and against the clear weight of the evidence.”

In their order on appeal, the three judges upheld without comment the trial judge’s decision that Christian’s injuries arose “out of and in the course of claimant’s employment.”

The state House and its insurance carrier could choose to appeal the issue further, to the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

The appeals panel did modify findings by the trial judge on how seriously Christian was hurt. The trial judge had found Christian has an 18 percent permanent partial disability to his neck from the accident and an 18 percent permanent partial disability to his lower back from the accident.

The appeals panel found Christian has a 20 percent permanent partial disability to his neck but only a 10 percent permanent partial disability to his lower back. Those changes resulted in a reduced award of $51,300. Christian will get $41,040 after his attorney’s fee is deducted from the award.

It was the third time Christian had been awarded workers’ comp benefits. The other two times involved injuries suffered while a trooper with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.