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Workers’ Compensation Law Supreme Court Opinion

by Oumano, Emily

 

SC20630- Clark v. Waterford, Cohanzie Fire Dept. (“The sole issue in this certified appeal is whether a uniformed firefighter must ‘customarily’ work twenty hours or more per week to be eligible for heart and hypertension benefits under General Statutes § 7-433c. The named defendant, the town of Waterford, Cohanzie Fire Department (town), appeals, upon our grant of its petition for certification, from the judgment of the Appellate Court affirming the decision of the Compensation Review Board (board), which upheld the finding and award of the Workers’ Compensation Commissioner for the Second District (commissioner), ordering the town to accept as compensable a claim filed by the plaintiff, Christopher A. Clark, for heart disease benefits pursuant to § 7-433c. Clark v. Waterford, Cohanzie Fire Dept., 206 Conn. App. 223, 224–25, 243, 261 A.3d 97 (2021). On appeal, the town claims that the Appellate Court incorrectly concluded that the definition of ‘member’ in General Statutes § 7-425 (5), which excludes ‘any person who customarily works less than twenty hours a week if such person entered employment after September 30, 1969,’ does not govern whether the plaintiff was ‘a uniformed member of a paid municipal fire department’ for purposes of § 7-433c. (Emphasis added.) General Statutes § 7-433c (a). We agree with the town and, accordingly, reverse the judgment of the Appellate Court.”)