## Facts

- Sylvester W. Powers injured his back while working for the National Geographic Society.
- After the injury, Powers continued working for National Geographic in a modified, light-duty job consistent with his medical restrictions.
- Powers voluntarily resigned from the light-duty job to accept a better-paying position with the U.S. Postal Service.
- Powers later determined he could not perform the Postal Service job because of limitations from the back injury and resigned.
- National Geographic did not rehire him, and Powers remained unemployed for about five months before obtaining other work.
- Powers sought workers’ compensation wage-loss benefits for the five-month unemployment period, claiming the loss of earnings was caused by the work-related injury.
- The DOES Director denied benefits, and Powers petitioned for review.

## Issues

1. Whether an employee who leaves suitable light-duty employment for economic reasons is entitled to temporary total disability (or wage-loss) benefits for a later period of unemployment when the new job cannot be performed due to the original injury.
2. Whether the DOES Director reasonably interpreted the D.C. Workers’ Compensation Act to treat a voluntary economic job change as breaking the causal link between injury and claimed wage loss.

## Decision

- The D.C. Court of Appeals affirmed the DOES Director’s denial of benefits.
- The court accepted the Director’s view that Powers’s wage loss during the five-month unemployment was not compensable where he voluntarily left suitable, injury-accommodating employment to pursue higher pay elsewhere.
- The court upheld the agency’s statutory interpretation as reasonable under the applicable standard of administrative review.

## Legal Principles

- Workers’ compensation wage-loss benefits require a compensable causal connection between the work injury and the claimed loss of earning capacity.
- When an injured employee is performing suitable work within medical restrictions and voluntarily quits that work for economic reasons, the employee’s later unemployment is not automatically attributable to the injury for purposes of wage-loss benefits.
- The D.C. Court of Appeals defers to reasonable DOES interpretations of the Workers’ Compensation Act, particularly on recurring benefit-eligibility questions.

## Conclusion

The court held that an injured worker who voluntarily leaves suitable light-duty employment for a higher-paying job may be denied wage-loss benefits for subsequent unemployment when the new job proves physically incompatible, because the voluntary job change can sever the compensable causation required by the Workers’ Compensation Act.


Powers v. District of Columbia Dep’t of Emp. Servs., 566 A.2d 1068 (D.C. 1989)