Opinion ID: 2543355
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: MOTION TO REOPEN UNDER KRS 342.125(1)(c).

Text: KRS 342.730(1)(a) provides that permanent total disability benefits are to be awarded during that disability, a period the courts have construed as extending for life. [1] The post-December 12, 1996 version of KRS 342.730(4) provides, however, that all income benefits awarded under Chapter 342 shall terminate as of the date upon which the employee qualifies for normal old-age Social Security retirement benefits or two years after the employee's injury, whichever occurs last. KRS 342.730 entitled the claimant to receive income benefits for total disability until he qualified for normal old-age Social Security benefits because the ALJ found him to be 100% occupationally disabled at reopening. Thus, the July 19, 2004 award clearly contained a patent error. It limited the duration of the total disability benefits awarded at reopening to the remaining weeks of the initial partial disability award. Although KRS 342.185 permits a party to file a petition for reconsideration to bring such an error to the ALJ's attention and have it corrected, the claimant failed to do so and the award became final. The ALJ who denied the claimant's motion acknowledged that the court construed KRS 342.125(1) (presently KRS 342.125(l)(c)) in Wheatley v. Bryant Auto Service [2] as permitting an ALJ to reopen a final award sua sponte in order to correct a mistake in applying the law as it existed at the time of the award. [3] Wheatley was decided, however, at a time when KRS 342.125 placed no limitations on the time for reopening. That was not the case in February 2009, when the claimant sought to have his award reopened and corrected. As amended in 2000 and as applicable to the claimant's motion, [4] KRS 342.125(3) provides as follows: Except for reopening solely for determination of the compensability of medical expenses, fraud, or conforming the award as set forth in KRS 342.730(l)(c)2., or for reducing a permanent total disability award when an employee returns to work, or seeking temporary total disability benefits during the period of an award, no claim shall be reopened more than four (4) years following the date of the original award or order granting or denying benefits, and no party may file a motion to reopen within one (1) year of any previous motion to reopen by the same party. KRS 342.125(3) barred a reopening based on mistake for the purpose of correcting the claimant's award because he filed his motion more than four years after the original award and more than four years after the subsequent order granting additional benefits. [5] Thus, the ALJ did not err by denying the motion as being untimely.