Delaware Code Title 19 Sec. 2353 – Forfeiture or suspension of right to compensation
(a) If the employee refuses reasonable surgical, medical and hospital services, medicines and supplies tendered to the employee by the claimant’s employer, the claimant shall forfeit all right to compensation for any injury or any increase in the claimant’s incapacity shown to have resulted from such refusal. Reasonable medical services shall include, if the Board so finds, vocational rehabilitation services offered by any public or private agency.
Terms Used In Delaware Code Title 19 Sec. 2353
- Board: means the Industrial Accident Board. See Delaware Code Title 19 Sec. 2301
- Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
- Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
- Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
- Employee: means every person in service of any corporation (private, public, municipal or quasi-public), association, firm or person, excepting those employees excluded by this subchapter, under any contract of hire, express or implied, oral or written, or performing services for a valuable consideration, excluding spouse and minor children of a farm employer unless the spouse or minor child is a bona fide employee of a farm employer and is named in an endorsement to the farm employer's contract of insurance, and excluding any person whose employment is casual and not in the regular course of the trade, business, profession or occupation of his or her employer, and not including persons to whom articles or materials are furnished or repaired, or adopted for sale in the worker's own home, or on the premises not under the control or management of the employer. See Delaware Code Title 19 Sec. 2301
- Employer: includes all those who employ others unless they are excluded from the application of this chapter by any provision of this subchapter, and if the employer is insured, the term shall include the insurer as far as practicable; employer shall also include the governing body for which employable relief recipients are assigned work under §§ 901-905 of Title 31. See Delaware Code Title 19 Sec. 2301
- Insurance carrier: means any insurance corporation, mutual association or company or interinsurance exchange which insures employers against liability under this chapter or against liability at common law for accidental injuries to employees. See Delaware Code Title 19 Sec. 2301
- State: means the State of Delaware; and when applied to different parts of the United States, it includes the District of Columbia and the several territories and possessions of the United States. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
- Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
Where rehabilitation services require residence at or near the public or private agency away from the employee’s customary residence, reasonable costs of board, lodging and travel shall be paid for by the employer. Refusal to accept rehabilitation services pursuant to order of the Board shall result in a loss of compensation for each week of the period of refusal.
(b) If any employee be injured as a result of the employee’s own intoxication, because of the employee’s deliberate and reckless indifference to danger, because of the employee’s wilful intention to bring about the injury or death of the employee or of another, because of the employee’s wilful failure or refusal to use a reasonable safety appliance provided for the employee or to perform a duty required by statute, the employee shall not be entitled to recover damages in an action at law or to compensation or medical, dental, optometric, chiropractic or hospital service under the compensatory provisions of this chapter. The burden of proof under this subsection shall be on the employer.
(c) If an injured employee refuses employment procured for the employee and suitable to the employee’s capacity, the employee shall not be entitled to any compensation at any time during the continuance of such refusal, unless in the opinion of the Board such refusal was justifiable.
(d) If an employee is receiving benefits, or claims to be eligible for benefits, for total or partial disability under § 2324 or § 2325 of this title, those benefits may be suspended by agreement or order of the Board under the following conditions and for only so long as those conditions apply:
(1) While an employee is incarcerated by the State of Delaware, after an adjudication of guilt;
(2) While an employee is incarcerated by another state or other government subdivision of another state authorized to operate a penal facility, after an adjudication of guilt; or
(3) While an employee is incarcerated by the federal government, after an adjudication of guilt.
(e) If the parties do not agree that a suspension condition applies, the party attempting to cease or begin benefits may file a petition for the matter to be adjudicated. Certified proof of conviction and incarceration as specified above from the responsible government entity, filed with the Board upon opposition to suspension of benefits, shall create a rebuttable presumption that benefits may be suspended unless countered by the filing with the Board of certified proof of release, parole, commutation of sentence or pardon. Work release or similar conditional release will not counter the presumption. The employer may suspend benefits until the hearing once the rebuttable presumption has been raised until countered or the Board adjudicates the matter.
(f) The employee shall give notice to the employer or insurance carrier when a period of suspension agreed to or ordered by the Board ends. At that time the employee shall provide medical certification that the disability continues. If the parties cannot agree to a specific date on which the suspension shall be lifted and benefits are to commence or recommence, either party may file a petition to have the Board adjudicate the issue.
(g) This section shall not prohibit an employee from collecting any other benefits due for other periods or types of benefits. An employee may collect from the Board Fund during a period for which a petition is pending under this section to stop paying benefits unless the above described rebuttable presumption is raised.
Code 1915, §§ ?3193h, 3193jj, 3193nn; 29 Del. Laws, c. 233; 30 Del. Laws, c. 203, § ?1; 32 Del. Laws, c. 186, § ?1; Code 1935, §§ ?6078, 6106, 6110; 19 Del. C. 1953, § ?2353; 50 Del. Laws, c. 267, § ?5; 58 Del. Laws, c. 529, § ?2; 59 Del. Laws, c. 454, § ?7; 70 Del. Laws, c. 172, § ?4; 70 Del. Laws, c. 186, § ?1; 76 Del. Laws, c. 1, § ?19;