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State ex rel Baker v. Industrial Commission of Ohio8/9/2000
for the injured worker to return to after he is medically released.
In State ex rel. Ramirez v. Indus. Comm. (1982), 69 Ohio St.2d 630, 23 O.O.3d 518, 433 N.E.2d 586, at syllabus, we held, "Under R.C. 4123.56, temporary total disability is defined as a disability which prevents a worker from returning to his former position of employment." Quoting Webster's Third New International Dictionary (1961), this court stated that "position" is defined as "the group of tasks and responsibilities making up the duties of an employee." Id. at 632, 23 O.O.3d at 519, 433 N.E.2d at 588. Ramirez did not hold that the injured worker had to actually return to the specific job that he held at the time of his injury; rather, this court merely stated that the proper criterion was the injured worker's ability to perform the job duties of his former position of employment. Since the Industrial Commission had failed to take evidence regarding Ramirez's ability to return, either partially or completely, to his former position of employment as a construction laborer, this court affirmed the court of appeals' judgment, which granted appellant a writ of mandamus and ordered the Industrial Commission to take evidence to determine Ramirez's ability to return to his former job. Id. at 634, 23 O.O.3d at 520, 433 N.E.2d at 590. As exemplified in Ramirez, the former-position-of-employment test does not involve any consideration of whether the injured worker returns to his actual job that he held at the time of his injury or whether that job is even available; rather, the test is a physical guideline by which an injured worker's eligibility for TTD is determined.
Eligibility for TTD is contingent upon an injured worker's inability to perform the duties of his former position of employment. Ramirez; Jones & Laughlin, supra. This eligibility standard is consistent with the purpose of TTD, which is to compensate an injured employee for the loss of earnings he incurs while his injury heals. State ex rel. Ashcraft v. Indus. Comm. (1987), 34 Ohio St.3d 42, 44, 517 N.E.2d 533, 535. In some cases, however, a worker's own actions, rather than his industrial injury, may result in the worker's not being able to return to his former position of employment. In such cases, the injured worker is said to have voluntarily abandoned his former position of employment, thereby precluding his eligibility for TTD.
For example, in Jones & Laughlin, the facts were that the claimant had voluntarily retired from the work force and was receiving a regular pension. The Franklin County Court of Appeals held that "where the employee has taken action that would preclude his returning to his former position of employment, even if he were able to do so, he is not entitled to continued temporary total disability benefits since it is his own action rather than the industrial injury, which prevents his returning to such former position of employment." Jones & Laughlin, 29 Ohio App.3d at 147, 29 OBR at 164, 504 N.E.2d at 454. This was obviously meant to explain that where an employee voluntarily undertakes some action that precludes that employee from returning to employment from a temporary total disability, the employee has voluntarily abandoned the work force and is therefore not entitled to receive TTD, because the purpose for which TTD was created (compensation for loss of income during temporary and total disability) no longer exists. Thus, when an employee receiving TTD chooses for reasons unrelated to his industrial injury not to return to any work when able to do so, that employee has abandoned both his employment and his eligibility for TTD.
In addition to Jones & Laughlin, where the claimant voluntarily and permane
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