On June 27, 2013, the employee, (30), while employed as a truck driver by GM Philadelphia, injured his back while dragging an engine, that was subsequently diagnosed as herniated discs in his lower back at L4-L5 & L5-S1 for which he subsequently underwent surgery. A petition was filed by the employee seeking benefits for his work related injury, which was opposed by his employer. Attorney Nelia DeStefano from our office won the hearing and a pre-trial order was entered on September 16, 2013 finding that his injury was causally related to his employment, and ordering the employer to pay the employee back benefits from June 28, 2013 and continuing in the amount of $770.98.
On February 1, 2019, the Employer, filed a Petition seeking a reduction of his weekly benefits claiming that he was able to return to work. Attorney DeStefano opposed the petition, claiming that the employee continued to remain disabled. The Court denied the employer’s petition. The employer filed an appeal and requested a trial before the workers compensation court.
A trial was commenced in 2024, which extended over several months.
VIDEO SURVEILLANCE
In an effort to demonstrate that the employee was capable of performing light duty work, the employer retained Gallagher Bassett Investigative Services to conduct video surveillance of the employee. The investigator conducted over fifty-seven (57) hours of video surveillance of the employee on eight (8) eight days over a five (5) month period extending from February 4, 2020 through July 22, 2020. At trial the attorney for the employer submitted into evidence snippets of the fifty-seven (57) hours which showed the employee on several occasions driving and sitting in his car, power washing his car, driving to the grocery store, and driving with his daughter to a gas station to put gasoline in his daughter’s jet ski.
Attorney DeStefano successfully argued that the five months of surveillance videos that captured activities of the employee did not establish a regular pattern of activity as he was primarily observed standing, talking or driving. There was no evidence that the employee performed all these activities on a regular basis as at best the videos demonstrated he could perform sedentary activities for no more than a few minutes. The employer also retained a medical orthopedics expert who testified that the employee was no longer disabled.
In August 2024, after the conclusion of the evidence at trial Attorney DeStefano convinced the judge to reject the opinion of the Employers’ doctor and video evidence. As a result the trial judge found in favor of the employee and denied the employers petition to terminate his weekly workers compensation benefits.
Attorney DeStefano subsequently successfully negotiated a lump sum settlement in the amount of $675,000.00 plus $80, 957.00 which was set aside for potential future medical bills.
Including payments for his weekly benefits, the employee received a total in excess of $ 1,2 Million dollars in workers compensation benefits.
LESSONS TO LEARNED
The lesson to be learned from this case is that plaintiffs and employees that are injured must be made aware that insurance companies will routinely hire private investigators to conduct surveillance of them to be used to reduce any settlement or to terminate benefits!