Gary E. Hammons, Petitioner v. West Virginia Office of the Insurance Commissioner and a & R Transport, Inc…

Summary

The court held that a workers’ compensation claimant may request a permanent partial disability evaluation for an additional, related compensable injury after the statutory reopening period has expired when the claimant timely sought to add the injury, the injury was later found compensable, and the Commission failed to make the required referral. Applying that rule, the court reversed the denials of both claimants’ requests and remanded for permanent partial disability evaluations. Justice Loughry, dissenting, would have enforced the statutory five-year limit and concluded that the majority impermissibly rewrote the statute.