CASE NO. 919 CRD-5-89-9Workers’ Compensation Commission
FEBRUARY 4, 1991
The claimant was represented by Edward T. Dodd Jr., Esq.
The respondent was represented by Michael J. Belzer, Esq., Assistant Attorney General.
This Petition for Review from the September 19, 1989 Finding and Award of the Commissioner for the Fifth District was heard August 10, 1990 before a Compensation Review Division panel consisting of the Commission Chairman, John Arcudi, and Commissioners Gerald Kolinsky, and A. Thomas White, Jr.
OPINION
JOHN ARCUDI, CHAIRMAN.
This matter was heard below on stipulated facts. On January 22, 1976 decedent Peter Cappellino sustained a compensable low back injury. Liability for payment of his benefits was transferred to the Second Injury Fund pursuant to Sec. 31-349, 104 weeks later in January, 1978. The employee reached maximum medical improvement March 1, 1978. The Fifth District then approved a Voluntary Agreement for a thirty per cent (30%) permanent partial disability of the back entitling the employee to one hundred fifty-six (156) weeks of specific benefits. Payments were made under that agreement until October 12, 1978 when the decedent again became totally disabled. At that point, the Respondent Fund had only paid (32) weeks of the one hundred fifty six weeks of specific benefits. However due to the change in the employee’s condition, the Fund interrupted the series of Sec. 31-307 specific benefits and again paid Sec. 31-308 total disability benefits. It continued to pay total disability benefits until October 4, 1988 when death occurred for causes unrelated to the compensable injury.
The dependent Spouse, the claimant here, then sought payment of the approximate one hundred twenty-four weeks of specific benefits remaining unpaid under the Voluntary Agreement. The commissioner agreed and awarded payment of the unpaid permanent partial benefits.
On appeal the Fund cites Bacote v. Anaconda American Brass, 1 Conn. Workers’ Comp. Rev. Op. 42
(1981) as controlling. Bacote is distinguishable from the instant case. In Bacote, the claimant dependent spouse sought payment of specific benefits for decedent’s twenty per cent (20%) loss of use of his back. She argued that as a physician’s report declared decedent had reached maximum medical improvement prior to death, shoe was entitled to the specific benefits to which the decedent would have been entitled. But decedent there had remained totally disabled continuously until death. There was never a Finding and Award nor a Voluntary Agreement establishing any eligibility for permanent partial benefits and therefore the widow was not entitled to payment of any unmatured permanent partial benefits. Bacote differs from the present matter, because here an approved Voluntary Agreement for specific benefits exists.
As was held in Bassett v. Stratford Lumber Co., 105 Conn. 297, 305 (1926) the right to an unmatured award for specific indemnity benefits lies with a claimant’s dependents and the right to a matured claim lies with the claimant’s estate. See, Morgan v. East Haven, 208 Conn. 576, 587 (1988); Finkelstone v. Bridgeport Brass Co., 144 Conn. 470, 472 (1951); Greenwood v. Luby, 105 Conn. 398, 400 (1926). See also, J. Asselin, Connecticut Workers’ Compensation’s Practice Manual (1985) p. 163. The decedent’s right to specific benefits vested when the parties Voluntary Agreement for thirty (30%) per cent of use of the back was approved by the Fifth District July 3, 1978.
The Fund’s appeal is dismissed and the commissioner’s decision is affirmed.
Commissioners Gerald Kolinsky and A. Thomas White, Jr. concur.