Patsy Siaperas v. Montana State Compensation Insurance Fund

FACTS & PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Patsy Siaperas severely injured her back on August 17, 1996, while working for High Plains Pizza in Dillon, Montana. She filed a workers’ compensation claim and was determined to be permanently totally disabled pursuant to § 39-71-702, Montana Code. The State of Montana Mutual Insurance Fund (the “State Fund”), as the insurer of Siaperas’ employer, accepted liability for Siaperas’ injury. The State Fund computed her disability rate to be $369.23 (two-thirds her $653.84 average current earnings (“ACE”)). Once Siaper-as’ bonuses came to light, the State Fund recognized that her ACE was $769.99 and that her disability rate should have been $506.66. However, Montana law capped workers’ compensation benefits at $384 per week; thus, the underpayment amounted to $14.77 per week.

What brought this case to the fore is what happened when Siaperas sought Social Security Disability Insurance benefits (“SSDI”) from the Social Security Administration. On June 28, 2002, an administrative law judge found Siaperas to be totally disabled as of February 6, 1997, for purposes of SSDI. As a result, Siaperas received SSDI retroactively to December 1, 1999, at a rate of…