THERE WAS NO INDICATION ON THE FORM AND NO REGULATION REQUIRING CLAIMANT TO SUBMIT A SEPARATE RB-89 FORM FOR EACH CLAIM; THE BOARD THEREFORE ABUSED ITS DISCRETION WHEN IT REFUSED TO REVIEW THE WORKERS’ COMPENSATION LAW JUDGE’S (WCLJ’S) DECISION ON THAT GROUND (THIRD DEPT).

The Third Department, reversing the Workers’ Compensation Board and remitting the matter, determined it was an abuse of discretion to deny claimant’s application on the ground that a separate copy of the RB-89 form was not submitted for each claim:

We note … that the requirement that a party submit a copy of the RB-89 form when referencing multiple claims, or that failing to provide a copy for each claim could result in review being denied on one of the claims, is not included on the form, in the instructions to the form or in the Board’s regulations. Although the Board may certainly adopt the formatting requirement that applicants provide a copy of their RB-89 form for each claim referenced therein, we find, under the circumstances presented here, that the Board’s denial of claimant’s application for review of the WCLJ’s decision on the 2017 claim for failing to provide the Board with an additional copy of their RB-89 form was an abuse of the Board’s discretion … . Matter of Olszewski v PAL Envtl. Safety Corp., 2022 NY Slip Op 02469, Third Dept 4-14-22