Client: A national insurer
Court: Workers’ Compensation
Trial Attorney: Prudence Higbee, Esq.
Brief Attorney: Prudence Higbee, Esq. and Jaclyn Terranova, Esq.
**Results may vary depending on your particular facts and legal circumstances**
Matter Caption: Schonewolf v. South Jersey Bakery
Following a trial that included the testimony of two factual witnesses and three medical experts Judge French granted a complete dismissal of a claim for dependency benefits. On October 11, 2017, the decedent rolled his ankle while climbing off of a forklift. Three days later he passed away. The diagnosis at the time of death included severe sepsis, community acquired pneumonia and cardiac arrest. The petitioner demanded lifetime dependency benefits totaling more than $1,000,000.00.
At trial, the attorney for the petitioner offered testimony by two different experts who submitted two different theories on causation. The first theory was that the decedent died from an acute pulmonary embolism that originated from a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in the ankle, which developed because the decedent rolled his ankle at work. The second theory was that after the decedent developed a DVT in his ankle due to rolling it at work, Staph aureus bacteremia entered the body through micro abrasions caused from the stretching of swelled skin from the ankle injury, the DVT propagated above the knee, and into the lungs, subsequently leading to sepsis and death, all within 72 hours of the work incident.
Prudence Higbee successfully defended this case by offering the testimony of an infectious disease expert, Dr. Stephen Smith, who opined that neither of the petitioner’s theories could have caused the decedent’s death. First, Dr. Smith confirmed there was no medical evidence to support a finding that petitioner sustained acute pulmonary embolism. Notwithstanding the fact that a DVT could not be caused by an ankle sprain or rolling of an ankle, Dr. Smith agreed with the petitioner’s second expert that petitioner died due to severe sepsis caused by Staph aureus bacteremia, but explained that the infection had to be present in petitioner’s body well before he sprained his ankle as he was in severe septic shock and acute renal failure when he presented to the hospital, within just 48 hours of the ankle injury.
The Honorable Ingrid L. French, A.S.J.W.C. found Dr. Smith’s testimony to be credible and supported by the medical records in evidence. Judge French found that although there was no evidence to confirm when the local seeding of Staph aureus bacteremia took place, when Mr. Schonewolf arrived to the hospital just two days after the work incident, the progression of the infection was so severe that it supports a finding that the seeding began prior to his ankle injury. Based on the foregoing, Judge French found that the petitioner failed to sustain her burden of proof and dismissed with prejudice the claim for dependency benefits.
