Illinois Court Says Trial Court Erred in Converting PPD Award to Lump Sum

An Illinois trial court’s finding that the entire amount of an arbitrator’s award—stated as a weekly amount times a number of weeks—came due when the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission adopted the arbitrator’s award was erroneous, held a state appellate court in Iannoni v. City of Chicago, 2019 IL App (1st) 182526, 2019 Ill. App. LEXIS 804 (Sept. 30, 2019). The Court noted that the state’s Legislature had indicated a strong preference for periodic, instead of aggregated payments. The Court acknowledged that claimants could seek lump sum payments, but held the injured worker here had failed to do so.

Background

Iannoni suffered a work-related injury and filed a workers’ compensation claim. His employer, the City of Chicago, began paying workers’ compensation benefits as the parties proceeded to arbitration. The arbitrator awarded Iannoni both TTD benefits and PPD benefits. The arbitrator set TTD benefits at $902.67 per week for 1493/7 weeks, for a total of $134,884.68. The City had already paid $128,694.95, so it owed only $6,189.73 for TTD. The arbitrator also found that Iannoni sustained a 35 percent loss of use of the person under 820 ILCS 305/8(d)(2), equivalent to 175 weeks of benefits. As to this PPD issue, the arbitrator awarded $721.66 per week. Neither party challenged the award and the Commission adopted the award as its final order.

Immediate Payment of Remaining PPD

Shortly thereafter, the City sent Iannoni a check for $62,890.49, covering the remaining TTD benefits and more than 70 weeks of PPD benefits that had accrued. The City subsequently sent Iannoni a second check in for $3,135.78, covering a little more than four times the weekly PPD benefits the arbitrator awarded, indicating that it was payment PPD on a monthly, rather than a weekly basis.

Iannoni nevertheless filed a complaint against the City, seeking immediate payment of the remainder of the PPD award, plus interest and attorney fees. The City resisted the complaint, but the circuit court entered a judgment in favor of Iannoni for the amount of unpaid benefits, plus interest and an attorney’s fee of $34,247.50. The City appealed.

Legislature’s Preference for Periodic Payments

The Court noted that the legislature had expressed its preference for periodic payments—rather than lump sum payments—in 820 ILCS 305/9. The Court also noted that Iannoni had not asked the arbitrator or the Commission to award a lump sum. Instead, he contended that the arbitrator had awarded a lump sum by awarding him $721.66 per week for 175 weeks, relying primarily on Lester v. Industrial Comm’n, 256 Ill. App. 3d 520 (1993). The Court said that, unfortunately for Iannoni’s cause, Lester established that the City had paid Iannoni properly.

Wage Replacement

The Court concluded that the state’s Workers’ Compensation Act mandated periodic payment of amounts intended to replace an injured worker’s lost wages. The City had, therefore, appropriately paid Iannoni at the start of each month the amount of workers’ compensation coming due that month. Accordingly, the Court reversed the order directing payment of benefits in a lump sum and the order directing payment of interest and attorney fees. It noted that if Iannoni desired a lump sum, he needed to seek that relief under 820 ILCS 305/9.