Title: State ex rel. Lunsford v. Indus. Comm.

State: ohio

Issuer: Ohio Supreme Court

Document:

[Cite as State ex rel. Lunsford v. Indus. Comm., 93 Ohio St.3d 448, 2001-Ohio-1584] 
 
 
THE STATE EX REL. LUNSFORD, APPELLANT, v. INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION OF 
OHIO, APPELLEE. 
[Cite as State ex rel. Lunsford v. Indus. Comm. (2001), 93 Ohio St.3d 448.] 
Workers’ compensation — Retroactive compensation adjustment following an 
average weekly wage recalculation is limited to the two years prior to 
the claimant’s recalculation motion. 
(No. 01-15 — Submitted September 19, 2001 — Decided October 17, 2001.) 
APPEAL from  the Court of Appeals for Franklin County, No. 00AP-432. 
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Per Curiam.  Appellant-claimant, Katy M. Lunsford, was industrially 
injured in 1976.  Her workers’ compensation claim was allowed and her average 
weekly wage (“AWW”) was set at $88.64.  Claimant did not object to that figure, 
and compensation and benefits followed. 
 
Over twenty years later, on February 14, 1996, claimant moved appellee 
Industrial Commission of Ohio to reset her AWW at $100.91, alleging that the 
Bureau of Workers’ Compensation had miscalculated her AWW in 1976.  She 
additionally requested that all compensation paid since the date of injury be 
readjusted.  The commission refused. 
 
Claimant filed a complaint in mandamus in the Court of Appeals for 
Franklin County, alleging that the commission abused its discretion in denying 
readjustment.  The court of appeals ruled that the commission abused its 
discretion in refusing to consider readjustment for the two years preceding 
claimant’s motion.  Readjustment prior to that point, the court continued, was 
barred by the two-year statute of limitations in R.C. 4123.52.  Accordingly, it 
issued a limited writ that returned the cause to the commission for determination 
SUPREME COURT OF OHIO 
2 
of claimant’s entitlement to readjustment from February 14, 1994 through 
February 14, 1996. 
 
This cause is now before this court upon an appeal as of right. 
 
Pursuant to our decision in State ex rel. Cobble v. Indus. Comm. (2001), 
92 Ohio St.3d 22, 748 N.E.2d 29, the judgment of the court of appeals is hereby 
affirmed. 
Judgment affirmed. 
 
MOYER, C.J., DOUGLAS, RESNICK, F.E. SWEENEY, PFEIFER, COOK and 
LUNDBERG STRATTON, JJ., concur. 
__________________ 
 
Butkovich, Schmipf, Schimpf & Ginocchio Co., L.P.A., and Lisa M. Clark, 
for appellant. 
 
Betty D. Montgomery, Attorney General, and Dennis H. Behm, Assistant 
Attorney General, for appellee. 
__________________