Susan Marandino v. Prometheus Pharmacy

Summary

The court held that a workers’ compensation claimant may receive total incapacity benefits after receiving permanent partial disability benefits when the subsequent disability is distinct from and not a normal and immediate incident of the earlier loss. It also held that the commissioner reasonably relied on the treating physician’s unequivocal causation opinion, considered with the claimant’s testimony, to find the knee injury compensable. Justice Katz, joined by Chief Justice Rogers, concurred in the result but would have resolved the benefits issue only on the narrower ground that the claimant’s deteriorating condition constituted a changed condition permitting modification.