Justices: No Retirement Offset for Pre-1989 Injury

The North Dakota Supreme Court held that a worker hurt before 1989 is entitled to full permanent total disability benefits and Social Security retirement benefits without an offset. In 1989, the state Legislature enacted North Dakota code section 65-05-09.2 to allow an employer to offset Social Security retirement benefits for injured workers receiving permanent total disability benefits. Before 1989, there was no such allowance made for employers. The justices wrote that they could not apply the law retroactively. "This expectation that the full amount of permanent total disabilit...