A top Maryland appellate court said Thursday that a Morgan Stanley & Co. Inc. financial adviser should not have been awarded workers compensation benefits for injuries he claimed were sustained from mold exposure in the workplace.
The Maryland Court of Special Appeals overturned a jury verdict that had awarded claimant Henry Gundlach workers comp benefits for a pneumonitis occupational disease claim.
Mr. Gundlach, who started working as a financial adviser for Morgan Stanley in 2008, claimed he developed pneumonitis in 2019 after being exposed to mold in his office. In 2020, he underwent a bilateral lung transplant.
The state Workers’ Compensation Commission upheld compensability for the claim and the trial court’s October 2022 jury verdict affirmed that determination.
Morgan Stanley argued on appeal that Mr. Gundlach’s exposure “may have been compensable as an accidental injury as an injurious exposure,” but that pneumonitis isn’t an occupational disease that would be connected to Mr. Gundlach’s job as a financial adviser.
Mr. Gundlach asserted that the type of employment includes the “place where the work is to be done,” not just the nature of the job, but the appeals court disagreed, saying there was no evidence that “mold exposure is a known risk or distinctive feature of the job of a financial adviser.”
Given the facts of the case, the appeals court said the trial court erred in failing to grant judgment to Morgan Stanley before trial.