Opinion ID: 1435897
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Strickland's Claim

Text: When petitioner Strickland was injured, he was employed as a truck driver for Jevic Transportation, Inc. (Jevic), a New Jersey company. His duties included loading, transporting, delivering, and occasionally unloading freight. On August 5, 1996, Strickland delivered a load of pamphlets to an office in the District of Columbia. In the process of unloading the boxes from the truck, Strickland injured his back. The following day, at the direction of his supervisors at Jevic, Strickland drove to Concord, North Carolina, where he received treatment. On August 8 Strickland called Kevin Long, Jevic's insurance manager, to report that he had suffered a work-related injury. Long obtained information about the injury from Strickland, explaining that it would be used to generate and file an injury report, thereby enabling Strickland to receive compensation for his injury under the New Jersey Workers' Compensation Act. After the claim form was completed, Long sent it to Jevic's insurance administrator, Lindsey Morden Claims Management, which forwarded it to the New Jersey Division of Workers' Compensation. Some time after his telephone conversation with Long, Strickland received in the mail from Jevic a check for $548.57. The check was dated August 27, 1996, and indicated that it represented temporary total disability payments from August 8 to August 15, 1996. [3] The check differed from his usual paycheck both in amount (his average weekly wage was normally between $1,200 and $1,500) and in method delivered (his paycheck was usually deposited directly into his bank account); nevertheless, he cashed it. At the time he received the check, Strickland had not filed a workers' compensation claim in any jurisdiction. Thereafter, however, Strickland filed a claim in the District of Columbia with DOES, seeking TTD compensation benefits from August 5, 1996, to the present and continuing, and payment of related medical expenses. After a hearing in April 1997, a hearing examiner denied Strickland's claim on the basis of D.C.Code § 36-303(a-1). The examiner found that although Strickland's injury had arisen out of and in the course of his employment and that his claim had been timely filed in the District of Columbia, Jevic had accepted Strickland's claim for a work-related injury on August 5, 1996, and had voluntarily paid him workers' compensation benefits under New Jersey workers' compensation laws before Strickland filed his claim here under the WCA. He concluded that because Strickland had already received benefits in accordance with New Jersey law, his claims under the WCA were barred by section 36-303(a-1). The Director affirmed the hearing examiner's decision.