CASE NO. 296 CRD-6-84Workers’ Compensation Commission
JULY 15, 1985
The Claimant-Appellee was represented by Robert B. Halloran, Esq.
The Respondents-Appellants were represented by Edward S. Downes, Jr., Esq.
This Petition for Review from the December 30, 1984 Finding and Award of the Commissioner for the Sixth District was argued May 31, 1985 before a Compensation Review Division panel consisting of Chairman, John Arcudi, and Commissioners Gerald Kolinsky and Frank Verrilli.
OPINION
GERALD KOLINSKY, Commissioner.
The Respondent-Appellant is here appealing a Sixth District award. Claimant-Appellee during the course of her employment with respondent on December 29, 1978 mixed two solutions together in a bucket from which noxious fumes were emitted causing her difficulty in breathing and coughing. A fellow employee, designated as “first aid” attendant, brought the claimant out into the fresh air and observed her for about forty-five minutes; he offered to take her to the hospital, but she refused.
The first aid man then described the incident in a medical case record which he placed on the desk of the claimant’s supervisor. This form was apparently lost or misplaced, and on August 15, 1979 the first aid man completed another such form.
In April, 1979, the claimant noticed a strange taste in her mouth and sought medical attention. Her physician concluded that her senses of smell and taste had been permanently damaged, and wrote a report to such effect on December 11, 1979, which report the claimant delivered to the medical department of the Respondent-Employer on December 12, 1979. The Respondent-Insurer issued a notice of denial of liability on December 31, 1979.
The Commissioner found that the medical case record of August 15, 1979, together with actual knowledge of the claimant’s medical problem constituted notice of a claim for compensation in accordance with 31-294, C.G.S. and awarded compensation benefits to the claimant. From such award, the respondents have appealed, contending that 1) the claimant herself never made a written notice of claim for compensation as required by 31-294, C.G.S. and 2) that the first aid man rendered no treatment which qualifies as one of the exceptions in 31-294, C.G.S., and therefore the claimant’s claim is barred. Claimant contends that she received medical care for her condition, which falls within one of the exceptions to the 31-294 requirement of written notice, and further that the August 15, 1979 medical case record constitutes the requisite statutory written notice.
The Commissioner’s Finding and Award fails to find whether claimant’s disability resulted from an accidental injury or an occupational disease, under 31-275(8) and 31-275(11), C.G.S.; neither does it disclose whether or not the so-called first aid man was authorized by the employer to provide medical care, and whether the attention given the claimant immediately following the incident at work constituted the furnishing “for the injury with respect to which compensation is claimed, with medical or surgical care . . .” so as to obviate the necessity of notice of claim by the claimant.
In the event claimant’s disability is as a result of an occupational disease, the statutory notice commences to run from the first manifestation of a symptom of such occupational disease, and the claim may be made within three years of such first manifestation (31-294, C.G.S.). If an accident, then notice must have been made within one year from the date thereof, unless “an employee has been furnished, for the injury with respect to which compensation is claimed, with medical or surgical care . . .”
The Finding and Award of the Commissioner is vacated, and this case is Remanded for further Findings in accordance with this opinion.
Chairman John Arcudi and Commissioner Frank Verrilli concur in this opinion.