Rutland Herald
By Lola Duffort
STAFF WRITER | July 27,2016
STAFF WRITER | July 27,2016
KILLINGTON — A dispute over who should pay a former Killington Resort ski ambassador’s medical bills following a 2008 tumble on the slopes could finally be settled in court.
Thomas Kibbie, of Connecticut, appealed in March a February decision by the Vermont Department of Labor denying in part his workers’ compensation claim with Killington Resort in Rutland Superior Court. Because the resort has not responded to the suit within the prescribed time, Thomas Bixby, Kibbie’s Rutland-based lawyer, has asked the judge for a default judgement in his client’s favor.
“We expected them to respond to the appeal — they’ve fought this tooth and nail for approximately eight years now,” Bixby said in an interview Tuesday.
Resort spokesman Michael Joseph said Tuesday the company would not be commenting on the matter “at this time.”
Kibbie had been a volunteer ski ambassador for about 10 years, according to filings in the case, when he fell and hit his head so hard his helmet cracked one January evening while doing a final sweep. He was rushed to the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., where a CT scan revealed a small brain hemorrhage. Discharged four days later, Kibbie was ultimately diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury and the resort began paying workers’ compensation benefits.
Kibbie would later undergo treatment for TBI, fractured teeth, whiplash, chronic neck pain, headaches, mental health problems and vision problems.
Bixby said the injuries have left Kibbie, a carpenter by trade, unable to work, and anxious around people or in a car.
“He would tell you: He’s not the same person he was before,” Bixby said.
In 2010, Kibbie and the resort signed an agreement providing Kibbie $50,000 in exchange for settling his claims. The resort also agreed to pay ongoing costs “for the treatment of his cognitive or other head injury including neurological, psychological, ophthalmological, TBI care and treatment.”
Kibbie would later testify in hearings before Department of Labor officials that he believed the agreement he had signed covered him “for everything from the shoulders up,” but soon after signing the document, the resort stopped reimbursing certain medical bills, arguing the treatments weren’t covered under the agreement, which only put the resort on the hook for treatment related to Kibbie’s head — and not neck — injuries.
In the February decision, the Labor Department agreed with the resort that it was only liable for medical treatments related to Kibbie’s head injuries.
“I do not dispute that the settlement agreement Claimant executed may not have said what he wanted it to say,” Jane Woodruff, an administrative law judge, wrote on behalf of Labor Commissioner Anne Noonan. “I cannot conclude that this was a consequence of ambiguous or inadequately defined terms however. … I am bound to enforce it according to its terms.”
But it also found the resort had wrongly denied payment for a variety of bills — including dental and mental health treatments, prescription medication costs, and visual deficit treatments — that were medically necessary and directly related to Kibbie’s head injury.
Bixby declined to elaborate on why Kibbie signed the 2010 agreement in the first place, but noted that it was the subject of a separate suit, filed this month in federal court, against Kibbie’s former attorney.
Even with a judge’s order compelling the resort to pay for treatments, his client might have trouble getting Killington to comply, Bixby said.
“This is kind of the tip of the iceberg, but we’re relieved to be moving forward,” he said.
lola.duffort
@rutlandherald.com
Thomas Kibbie, of Connecticut, appealed in March a February decision by the Vermont Department of Labor denying in part his workers’ compensation claim with Killington Resort in Rutland Superior Court. Because the resort has not responded to the suit within the prescribed time, Thomas Bixby, Kibbie’s Rutland-based lawyer, has asked the judge for a default judgement in his client’s favor.
“We expected them to respond to the appeal — they’ve fought this tooth and nail for approximately eight years now,” Bixby said in an interview Tuesday.
Resort spokesman Michael Joseph said Tuesday the company would not be commenting on the matter “at this time.”
Kibbie had been a volunteer ski ambassador for about 10 years, according to filings in the case, when he fell and hit his head so hard his helmet cracked one January evening while doing a final sweep. He was rushed to the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., where a CT scan revealed a small brain hemorrhage. Discharged four days later, Kibbie was ultimately diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury and the resort began paying workers’ compensation benefits.
Kibbie would later undergo treatment for TBI, fractured teeth, whiplash, chronic neck pain, headaches, mental health problems and vision problems.
Bixby said the injuries have left Kibbie, a carpenter by trade, unable to work, and anxious around people or in a car.
“He would tell you: He’s not the same person he was before,” Bixby said.
In 2010, Kibbie and the resort signed an agreement providing Kibbie $50,000 in exchange for settling his claims. The resort also agreed to pay ongoing costs “for the treatment of his cognitive or other head injury including neurological, psychological, ophthalmological, TBI care and treatment.”
Kibbie would later testify in hearings before Department of Labor officials that he believed the agreement he had signed covered him “for everything from the shoulders up,” but soon after signing the document, the resort stopped reimbursing certain medical bills, arguing the treatments weren’t covered under the agreement, which only put the resort on the hook for treatment related to Kibbie’s head — and not neck — injuries.
In the February decision, the Labor Department agreed with the resort that it was only liable for medical treatments related to Kibbie’s head injuries.
“I do not dispute that the settlement agreement Claimant executed may not have said what he wanted it to say,” Jane Woodruff, an administrative law judge, wrote on behalf of Labor Commissioner Anne Noonan. “I cannot conclude that this was a consequence of ambiguous or inadequately defined terms however. … I am bound to enforce it according to its terms.”
But it also found the resort had wrongly denied payment for a variety of bills — including dental and mental health treatments, prescription medication costs, and visual deficit treatments — that were medically necessary and directly related to Kibbie’s head injury.
Bixby declined to elaborate on why Kibbie signed the 2010 agreement in the first place, but noted that it was the subject of a separate suit, filed this month in federal court, against Kibbie’s former attorney.
Even with a judge’s order compelling the resort to pay for treatments, his client might have trouble getting Killington to comply, Bixby said.
“This is kind of the tip of the iceberg, but we’re relieved to be moving forward,” he said.
lola.duffort
@rutlandherald.com
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