State ex rel. Meade v. Indus. Comm

In State ex rel. Meade v. Indus. Comm. (2005), Franklin App. No. 04AP-1184, 2005 Ohio 6206, this court found that the claimant in that case had engaged in activities which constituted work and precluded his receipt of TTD compensation. In Meade, the claimant sustained a work-related injury while employed by Allied Systems, Inc. ("Allied Systems"), and was paid TTD compensation from February 3, 2003 through February 3, 2004. Allied Systems filed a motion requesting that all the TTD compensation paid to the claimant be recouped based on evidence submitted that claimant was working in a self-employed capacity at a pizza shop called Ron's Pizza Enterprises, Inc. ("Ron's Pizza"). The record showed that Ron's Pizza had been run by claimant's wife since November 17, 2000. During the time he was paid TTD compensation, claimant was observed at Ron's Pizza taking orders, preparing food, serving customers, working the cash register, and delivering pizzas. The Court found that the claimant was indeed engaged in work activity and that, even though the claimant was not being compensated in the form of wages, the activities which the claimant undertook were income generating activities which precluded the payment of TTD compensation. Although the claimant argued that the pizza shop business would have been maintained whether he had been physically present at the shop or not, and that he did not replace any employees of the pizza shop, this court found that the claimant's activities of preparing food, serving customers, working the cash register, and delivering pizzas are the very activities which generate income for the pizza shop. Unlike the situations presented in Ford and American Standard, this court found that the claimant's hands-on engagement in the activities that produce income for the pizza business are distinguishable from the more passive, supervisory activities at issue in American Standard and Ford Motor Co., activities that produced income only secondarily.