Ohio Top Court Sends Case Back to see if ‘Not Working’ was ‘Direct Result’ of Worker’s Injury

Case File

For an Ohio school worker who had a filing cabinet fall on her, it was unclear whether she was "not working" because she was taking the summer off or because of injury. Simply Research subscribers have access to the full text of the decision.

Case

State ex. rel. Columbus City Schs. v. Brookbank-Mizner, No. 2026-Ohio-1175 (Ohio 04/03/26)

What Happened?

A speech therapist for an Ohio school district was attempting to clean a school file cabinet when two shelves collapsed and struck her on the head. The Bureau of Workers' Compensation allowed her claim for concussion without loss of consciousness, sprain of ligaments of cervical spine, and sprain of ligaments of thoracic spine and awarded her temporary total disability compensation.

The therapist was a nine-month employee but elected "stretch pay" to receive wages for 12 months. When she sought to extend her TTD compensation from May 2022 to August 2022, the district responded by noting that June 3 would be her last day of work for the 2021-2022 school year and that Aug. 22 would be her first day for 2022-2023.

A district hearing officer determined that the therapist was not eligible for TTD compensation after June 3 because she was a nine-month employee, did not work during the 2021 summer recess, and had not presented evidence indicating that she intended to work during the 2022 summer recess.

A staff hearing affirmed the DHO's findings, concluding erroneously that the therapist had received her normal stretch-pay wages and was not entitled to TTD compensation during the recess.

On reconsideration, the commission found that the SHO's order included mistakes of both fact and law, reasoning that State ex rel. Glenn v. Indus. Comm., 2009-Ohio-3627 (Ohio 2009) determined that an injured teacher who had elected to receive stretch pay was entitled to TTD compensation during the summer recess if she was not receiving her normal wages. The commission awarded TTD compensation through Dec. 15, 2022.

The district filed a mandamus action in court, which was rejected, prompting an appeal to the Supreme Court of Ohio.

Rule of Law

Under Ohio law, in the case of temporary disability, an employee shall receive compensation based on a formula involving the employee's average weekly wage as long as the disability is total.

What the Court Said

According to the court, the law provided that to be entitled to receive TTD or wage-loss compensation, an employee's inability to work or wage loss must be the direct result of an impairment arising from an allowed injury. Likewise, if an employee's not working or wage loss is the direct result of reasons unrelated to the allowed injury, the employee is not eligible to receive workers' compensation.

Glossary Check: According to the court, the phrase "as the direct result of" describes "the causal relationship that must exist between the employee's injury and the employee's claimed inability to work, not working, or wage loss."

The court reasoned that if the therapist was "not working" during the 2022 summer recess because she was not scheduled to work during the summer, then she was arguably not working as the direct result of reasons unrelated to the allowed injury, making her ineligible for TTD compensation.

"In other words, if she was 'not working' because she had no intention of obtaining summer employment, there would be no direct causal connection between the work-related injury and her 'not working' during the summer," the court wrote.

Because the commission did not conduct the proper analysis under Ohio statutes, the court granted a limited writ for the purpose of sending the case back to the commission to determine the therapist's eligibility for TTD compensation.

Verdict: The Ohio Supreme Court reversed the lower court's verdict and issued a limited writ directing the commission to vacate its order and to consider and determine whether the therapist was eligible for TTD.

Takeaway

For TTD benefits to apply in Ohio, an employee's "not working" or "wage loss" must be the "direct result of" an allowed injury.

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