Lori A. Tunstall

Successfully defended against an appeal filed by the claimant, enabling the client to pursue a supersedeas reimbursement sum in excess of $40,000. WCJ had terminated compensation for injuries to claimant’s face and eye in accordance with an IME of full recovery. The WCAB reviewed the evidence of record and upheld the WCJ’s decision, concluding that it was supported by the credibility determinations of the witnesses involved. The WCAB also highlighted that the claimant bore the burden of establishing a causal relation between her work and additional alleged injuries by unequivocal medical evidence, which was unable to be met by virtue of the WCJ’s rejection of her medical experts’ testimony. The WCAB went on to conclude that there was adequate evidence to support the WCJ’s findings and rejected claimant’s appeal on the basis of error from a substantial evidence perspective.

Received a favorable ruling from the Workers' Compensation Appeal Board when it denied the late employee’s appeal seeking imposition of both lifetime and death benefits and substantial medical benefits. The issue was whether the worker developed stage 3B adenocarcinoma as a result of exposure to various substances, all alleged to be highly toxic and many of which were used in the client's manufacturing process. The underlying ruling was that the worker's adenocarcinoma, which eventually metastasized and caused her death, was due to her years of cigarette smoking and not her years of alleged exposure to multiple other substances in the workplace.