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Fitzpatrick v. Cucinotta.3/22/1999
This case came before the Court on January 26, 1999, pursuant to an order directing the parties to appear and show cause why the issues raised in Clark Fitzpatrick's petition for writ of certiorari from a decree of the Appellate Division of the Workers' Compensation Court should not be summarily decided.
After hearing the arguments of counsel and reviewing the memoranda submitted by the parties, we are of the opinion that cause has not been shown. The issues raised by Clark Fitzpatrick will be decided at this time.
On March 28, 1988, while working on the Jamestown Bridge, Antonino Cucinotta (Cucinotta) injured his neck and back. He was employed by Clark Fitzpatrick (employer), the petitioner here. Cucinotta was thereafter paid workers' compensation benefits for his neck and back injuries, were which later amended to include psychological overlay and were considered to constitute a total disability.
On January 6, 1993, the employer filed an employer's petition to review, alleging that Cucinotta's incapacity for work had ended or diminished. The employer filed a timely request for a trial and the petition later went to trial. After that trial but prior to the Workers' Compensation Court's decision in that matter, Cucinotta murdered two people. After turning himself over to the police for those murders, Cucinotta was placed in federal witness protection custody. On May 2, 1995, Cucinotta pled guilty to two counts of murder and one count of carrying a pistol without a license. He was sentenced to eighty years, sixty years to serve, effective as of April 1, 1994, the date the murders took place.
After Cucinotta was incarcerated but prior to his May 2, 1995 conviction on the two murders, the workers' compensation insurance company insuring the employer unilaterally stopped paying Cucinotta his benefits, as of the time period from March 28, 1994 to April 4, 1994. Cucinotta then filed an employee's petition to enforce, alleging that the employer was in contempt for suspending the benefits. The employer also filed a motion to reopen the earlier employer's petition to review, upon which the parties were still waiting for the court's decision, so that it could introduce the new evidence concerning Cucinotta's crimes and his subsequent conviction.
In the decision on the employer's petition to review and Cucinotta's petition to enforce, both of which were entered by decree on July 18, 1996, the trial court found that Cucinotta remained totally disabled and that he was entitled to workers' compensation benefits up until May 2, 1995, the time of his guilty plea. The trial court also found that the employer was in contempt by unilaterally suspending the payment of benefits. The trial court therefore ordered the employer to pay the benefits owed to Cucinotta together with interest and penalties. The Appellate Division affirmed the decision of the trial court. The employer then filed a petition for writ of certiorari in this Court seeking review of the Appellate Division's determination. On April 16, 1997, after the filing of that petition but before any decision was rendered by this Court, the employer sent three checks to Cucinotta, representing the total amount owed to him as a result of the Appellate Division's determination. Thereafter, we granted the employer's writ on October 23, 1997 and assigned the petition to the show cause calendar for hearing.
We conclude that the determinations of both the trial court and the Appellate Division were correct. General Laws 1956 ยง 28-33-17.1(c) provides that:
"An employee shall also not be entitled to compensation under chapters 29---38 of this title for any period during which the employ
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