Discharge Letter Enough to Warrant PPD Benefits, but More Needed for Award Calculation

The Hawaii Supreme Court upheld an award of permanent partial disability benefits to a state government worker too stressed out to return to his job, and ordered the award itself — $250 — to be recalculated. The amount could not stand because it hadn’t been based on an impairment rating or determined by the schedule of benefits, the court said. The high court ordered the Labor and Industrial Relations Appeals Board to assign an impairment rating to Dennis Ihara, then base his permanent partial disability award on that. The Supreme Court decided...