In a case out of New Jersey, a worker who had been injured and was working light duty was fired. He did not continue to receive temporary disability benefits or unemployment because his employer said he was fired for making a serious mistake on the job, not because of his injury status.

The case Cunningham v Atlantic States Cast Iron Pipe Co. addressed this issue. The ruling states that in order for a worker to be entitled to temporary disability benefits during their unemployment they have to prove that they are willing to work, but because of their injury are unable to find a suitable job. In the case at hand, the worker failed to establish they were willing to or seeking work.

Matthew Katzenstein worked for Dollar General and injured his knee in August of 2012. He returned to the store to work light duty on September 19^th of that year. He was fired September 28^th because his employer said he left the store to go make a deposit at the store’s bank but he left employees at the store without supervision while he went.

He filed for unemployment benefits but did not receive them because he had been fired for misconduct. His physician, Dr. Basch, said he still could not work because of his knee injury and should be restricted to light duty. Katzenstein received temporary disability benefits for three months after he was fired but when those three months were up he filed a motion to obtain ongoing benefits. In his motion he told the judge his unemployment was denied because of his injury and not because of his misconduct, but the Judge of Compensation knew about his misconduct. He also found that Katzenstein had no new employment offers but had also not been denied a job because of his injury, and denied the motion. He could not receive temporary disability benefits for days of wages lost because he was not employed and did not receive unemployment, he would not have been earning wages on those days anyway. Katzenstein appealed.

The Appellate Division applied the logic from the Cunningham case, which ruled that an employee who had been fired working light duty was not entitled to temporary disability benefits because the reason he was fired was not related to his injury. Applying that case to the one at hand, the courts said that it was his burden to prove that he had a job offer that he had to turn down because of his injury and work restrictions, or that he had no job offers because of his injury. Since Katzenstein was considered not credible by the Judge of Compensation and had no apparent job prospects, he was denied temporary disability benefits. The employer can stop temporary disability payments if they have fired an employee on light duty for reasons outside of their injury.