Filosi v. Elec. Boat Corp.

193 A.3d 33, 330 Conn. 231
CourtSupreme Court of Connecticut
DecidedSeptember 18, 2018
DocketSC 19990, (SC 19991)
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 193 A.3d 33 (Filosi v. Elec. Boat Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Filosi v. Elec. Boat Corp., 193 A.3d 33, 330 Conn. 231 (Colo. 2018).

Opinion

ROBINSON, C.J.

**233In this workers' compensation appeal, we consider whether an employer is collaterally estopped from challenging an employee's eligibility for benefits under the Connecticut Workers' Compensation Act (state act), General Statutes § 31-275 et seq., because of an earlier decision by a United States Department of Labor administrative law judge (administrative law judge) awarding benefits to that employee under the federal Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act (Longshore Act), 33 U.S.C. § 901 et seq. (2012). The defendant Electric Boat Corporation1 appeals2 from the decision of the Compensation Review Board (board), which reversed the decision of the Workers' Compensation Commissioner for the Eighth District (commissioner) dismissing the claims for benefits under the state act filed by the plaintiff, Katherine Filosi, as executor of the estate of the decedent, Donald L. Filosi, Jr., and as the dependent widow of the decedent.3 On appeal, the defendant claims that the board improperly determined that the administrative law judge's decision **234to award benefits under the Longshore Act collaterally estopped it from challenging compensability because the federal forum employs a lower standard of causation than the substantial factor standard required by the state act and, therefore, that it should be allowed to litigate its claims under the higher state standard. Guided largely by our decision in Birnie v. Electric Boat Corp. , 288 Conn. 392, 953 A.2d 28 (2008), we conclude that the board properly determined that the defendant is collaterally *38estopped from relitigating the issue of causation under the state act because the record of the Longshore Act proceedings indicates that the administrative law judge employed the substantial factor standard that governs in the state forum. Accordingly, we affirm the decision of the board.

The record reveals the following undisputed facts and procedural history. The decedent began working at the defendant's Groton shipyard in 1961 and, with some brief exceptions, continued his work there until he retired in 1998. During his employment with the defendant, the decedent was exposed to asbestos. The decedent was also a heavy smoker of cigarettes from the age of fourteen until his death, with some pauses. After he was diagnosed in 2012 with high grade neuroendocrine lung cancer, the decedent filed a notice of claim for compensation with the Workers' Compensation Commission (commission), alleging that he had sustained a lung injury from "exposure to dust and fumes." On December 17, 2012, the decedent died as a result of his lung cancer. The plaintiff, as his widow, subsequently filed a notice of dependent's claim, and the two claims were assigned to the commission's consolidated asbestos litigation docket.

In addition to the claims seeking benefits under the state act, the plaintiff also filed claims seeking benefits **235under the Longshore Act. While the claims under the state act were pending, the administrative law judge conducted a formal hearing on the Longshore Act claims on August 5, 2013. At the hearing, the plaintiff presented the opinions and testimony of two physicians, Laura Welch and Arthur DeGraff. Welch, who is board certified in internal medicine and occupational medicine, testified that "smoking contributed to [the decedent's] lung cancer, but his asbestos exposure was a substantial contributing cause." DeGraff, who is board certified in internal medicine and pulmonary disease, testified that the decedent's "death from lung cancer is a direct result of his past smoking history combined with past asbestos exposure." On the basis of the documentary evidence presented by the plaintiff, along with a concession by the defendant's medical expert, Milo Pulde, an internist, the administrative law judge found that the plaintiff had established a prima facie case under the Longshore Act's burden shifting framework by showing that the decedent had suffered harm, and that workplace conditions could have caused, aggravated, or accelerated that harm,4 which then triggered **236the Longshore Act's § 20 (a) presumption of coverage.5 See 33 U.S.C. § 920 (a) (2012).6 *39The defendant then presented evidence to rebut the § 20 (a) presumption of coverage under the Longshore Act. The administrative law judge found that the defendant successfully rebutted the § 20 (a) presumption by submitting substantial evidence through the opinions and testimony of its medical experts, Pulde and Darryl Carter, a board certified anatomic pathologist, that the workplace did not cause the decedent's injury. Pulde directly contradicted the testimony of the plaintiff's experts, stating: "[T]here is no evidence that [the decedent's] ... occupational employment as a rigger ... **237or ... occupational asbestos exposure caused or contributed to his tobacco-related lung cancer ...."

Once the defendant introduced evidence to rebut the presumption of coverage under the Longshore Act, the administrative law judge weighed all of the evidence in the record and concluded that the plaintiff had carried her burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that the decedent's lung cancer was work-related. In weighing the evidence, the administrative law judge found Welch "to be the most qualified expert" and found DeGraff also to be "reliable"; he did not credit the defendant's expert witnesses. On March 20, 2014, the administrative law judge issued a decision and order finding the decedent's "disability and death, a direct result of his lung cancer, causally linked to his asbestos exposure while employed at [the defendant]," and he awarded the plaintiff benefits under the Longshore Act.

Thereafter, the plaintiff submitted the order of the administrative law judge awarding benefits under the Longshore Act to the commissioner in the pending state workers' compensation proceeding, and contended that the administrative law judge's order collaterally estopped the defendant from litigating the state act claims before the commissioner.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
193 A.3d 33, 330 Conn. 231, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/filosi-v-elec-boat-corp-conn-2018.