Decision  Jill O'Meara v. Boston Medical Center

Date:	01/20/2023
Organization:	Department of Industrial Accidents
Docket Number:	DIA Board No. 020326-20
Location:	Boston, MA

• Employee: Jill O'Meara
• Employer: Boston Medical Center
• Self Insurer: Boston Medical Center

FABISZEWSKI, J. In this case, our first involving Covid-19, the employee appeals from the administrative judge’s decision denying and dismissing her claim for § 34 temporary total incapacity benefits for a closed period from May 24, 2020 to June 18, 2020.  On appeal, the employee makes three arguments:  1) medical evidence is not required to establish causation where the cause of Covid-19 is obvious based upon general human knowledge and experience; 2) the medical opinion offered by the employee was sufficient to establish causation; and 3) the administrative judge’s reliance upon the self-insurer’s expert opinion was an error of law.  For the reasons set forth below, we affirm the decision of the administrative judge.¹

 

¹ We note that neither party raises the issue of whether the employee’s illness was a “personal injury” as defined in G.L. c. 152, § 1(7A), which states, in relevant part, “ ‘Personal injury’ includes infectious or contagious diseases if the nature of the employment is such that the hazard of contracting such diseases by an employee is inherent in the employment.”  Accordingly, we neither discuss nor decide this issue.  See 452 CMR § 1.15(4)(a)(3).

We further note that most of the infectious disease cases decided to date by the courts and this board have dealt primarily with the issue of whether such diseases are a “personal injury.”  See, e.g., Perron’s Case, 325 Mass. 6 (1949)(tuberculosis contracted by nurse working in TB hospital is a personal injury); Tartas’s Case, 328 Mass. 585 (1952)(anthrax contracted by employee in course of employment working on hides, skins and wool, is a personal injury); Langevin v. Air Liquide America, 21 Mass. Workers’ Comp. Rep. 293 (2007)(bacterial meningitis contracted during employment as long haul truck driver is not a personal injury); Lussier v. Sadler Brothers, Inc., 12 Mass. Workers’ Comp. Rep. 451 (1998)(hazard of contracting tuberculosis is not a hazard inherent in employment as a machine operator); Raimo v. DeIulis Brothers Construction Co., 5 Mass. Workers’ Comp. Rep. 210 (1991)(aggravation of pre-existing pneumonia is not so essentially characteristic of employee’s outdoor work as mason as to be personal injury).  As a result, these cases are of limited assistance in the instant case.