Waltman v. State of Delaware

The Freibott Law Firm was recently successful in pursuing a claim on behalf of one its clients in front of the Industrial Accident Board.  Our client was a State of Delaware Constable who injured his left knee while working for the State of Delaware on May 22, 2014.  Our client drove into the parking lot of Justice of the Peace Court 11, parked his car, and exited his vehicle.  Our client alleges that he then twisted his ankle and twisted his knee and felt immediate pain in those areas of his body.  (Our client needed surgery, at a later date, to correct the injury he sustained.)The entire incident was caught on surveillance tape; however, since our client parked his vehicle next to another vehicle, it was difficult to see the exact mechanism of injury.  Our client is seen in the surveillance tape clearly limping from his car to the front door of the Justice of the Peace Court 11.  The State of Delaware denied the claim stating that our client did not injure himself as he alleged.  At the Industrial Accident Boardhearing, we produced two constables and the claimant’s wife to testify on his behalf.  The testimony of one of the constables was such that he has never seen our client limp while on the job and that, at times, during the facilitating of evictions, there are confrontations with tenants that sometimes turn violent.  There is a lot of stair climbing as tenants sometimes live on higher floors of buildings.  This witness testified he never noticed problems with our client’s knees or legs during any of those eviction processes or at any time during his relationship with our client.  In fact, the constable worked with our client the day before the work accident and did not notice any problems with our client’s knee or ankle.  The Claimant’s wife testified that she saw her husband arrive from work the day before the injury, get out of his car, and walk to their house.  There was no limping or any type of problem associated with his leg.  The next day, the date of the accident, the wife testified that she saw her husband walk from the house to his car, get into his car, and drive away without any limping issues whatsoever.  Therefore, we were able to establish that our client was pain free and symptom free up to the moment when he stepped out of his vehicle.  The Industrial Accident Board found our client’s version of the incident credible and awarded a closed period of total disability; ordered that all medical expenses related to this incident be paid; ordered the State of Delaware to reimburse the Claimant’s expert witness fee; and, lastly, ordered the State of Delaware to pay an attorney’s fee for the successful prosecution of this matter.  (Waltman v. State of Delaware, Hearing No.: 1413825, Order date of January 30, 2015)