## Facts

- Benjamin Amoah entered the United States on a visa that did not authorize employment and later overstayed.
- To obtain work, Amoah used another person’s identity documents and was hired by Mallah Management, L.L.C. as a parking garage attendant.
- Amoah suffered a work-related injury in April 2005.
- The employer and its carrier commenced workers’ compensation payments under the other person’s name.
- After a dispute over sharing benefits and potential third-party recovery, Amoah disclosed his true identity to the carrier.
- The employer then contested wage-replacement benefits, arguing that the use of fraudulent documents and unauthorized employment under federal immigration law barred such benefits.

## Issues

1. Whether the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) preempts or otherwise bars New York workers’ compensation wage-replacement (reduced-earnings) benefits for an undocumented worker who obtained employment using fraudulent documents.
2. Whether the Supreme Court’s reasoning in *Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. v. NLRB* requires denial of state-law wage-replacement benefits in these circumstances.

## Decision

- The Appellate Division, Third Department affirmed the Workers’ Compensation Board’s award of reduced-earnings benefits.
- The court held that IRCA contains no express preemption of state workers’ compensation remedies and does not impliedly preempt New York’s wage-replacement benefits.
- The court distinguished *Hoffman Plastic* as addressing federal labor-law backpay for work not performed, not state workers’ compensation benefits tied to a workplace injury.
- The court concluded that awarding wage-replacement benefits for a past work injury does not authorize continued unlawful employment and does not frustrate IRCA’s objectives.

## Legal Principles

- State workers’ compensation benefits are not preempted absent congressional intent shown through express preemption, field preemption, or conflict preemption.
- Conflict preemption requires a showing that the state rule stands as an obstacle to accomplishing the federal statute’s primary objectives.
- IRCA’s employer-sanctions and document-fraud provisions do not, by themselves, bar an undocumented worker from receiving New York workers’ compensation wage-replacement benefits for a work-related injury.
- *Hoffman Plastic* does not categorically prohibit monetary remedies associated with employment; its holding is limited to the specific federal backpay remedy that directly conflicted with IRCA’s prohibitions.

## Conclusion

The court affirmed an award of reduced-earnings workers’ compensation benefits to an undocumented employee who used false documents to obtain employment, holding that IRCA and *Hoffman Plastic* did not preempt or bar New York’s wage-replacement remedy for a work-related injury.


Matter of Amoah v. Mallah Mgmt., L.L.C., 57 A.D.3d 29, 866 N.Y.S.2d 797 (3d Dep’t 2008)