Commission Rejected Doctor's Statement Regarding Date of Disability

Did the Commission Abuse Its Discretion by Rejecting Doctor's Statement Regarding Date of Disability As He Had Not Seen or Treated Him at That Time ? In State ex rel. Baker v. Indus. Comm., 97 Ohio St.3d 267, 2002 Ohio 6341, 779 N.E.2d 214, the commission granted the claimant's application for PTD with a start date of July 28, 1999, the date of the medical report the claimant submitted in support of his application. In the July 28, 1999 medical report, the examining doctor stated his opinion that the claimant was permanently and totally disabled and had been unfit for gainful remunerative employment since September 26, 1994. The claimant sought a writ of mandamus, seeking an earlier PTD start date of September 26, 1994. The Ohio Supreme Court rejected the claimant's position. As relevant here, the court found that the commission did not abuse its discretion by rejecting the doctor's statement that the claimant had been permanently and totally disabled since September 26, 1994, because the doctor had not seen or treated the claimant in 1994, and because the doctor's selection of the PTD start date "coincides more with the termination date of temporary total disability compensation than it does with anything of a medical nature." Id. at P6.