The death of a Utah woman who suffered from melanoma was not compensable under the state's workers compensation law, even though her employer initially denied her time-off requests for surgery, a Utah appellate court has ruled.

Gina Cook worked in the data processing department at Salt Lake City-based Zions Bank, and worked overtime hours from February to May 1994 as the bank was converting its computer system, court records show. Employees were told during that time that they could not request time off from work because of increased demands.

Ms. Cook had noticed a lump on her lower lip in November 1993, and Zions Bank gave her a partial day off in February 1994 to visit an ear, nose and throat specialist, records show. The specialist recommended that Ms. Cook have surgery to remove the lump, which would require her to miss an entire day of work.

Ms. Cook immediately began requesting a day off from work to undergo surgery, but Zions Bank did not grant her request until April 1994, records show. Ms. Cook was ill on the original date granted for her surgery, and attempted to reschedule for May 6 of that year. But Zions Bank did not approve her for another day off until May 20, when Ms. Cook had the surgery performed.

A biopsy found that Ms. Cook had a “rare, aggressive” form of malignant melanoma, and she died in March 1996, records show.

%%BREAK%%

Ms. Cook's family sued Zions Bank, alleging that the employer's denial of Ms. Cook's sick leave requests resulted in her wrongful death, records show. However, the Utah Supreme Court ultimately found that workers comp was the exclusive remedy for the Cook family's claims against Zions Bank, and the wrongful death claim was dismissed.

Ms. Cook's estate filed a claim for workers comp survivor benefits, records show. However, a Utah administrative law judge found that workers comp law did not apply to Ms. Cook's case.

The judge alternatively applied Utah's occupational disease law, and found that Ms. Cook's family failed to prove that Zions Bank's conduct was linked to Ms. Cook's death, records show. The Utah Labor Commission Appeals Board upheld the judge's ruling, finding that the Cook family did not prove the compensability of Ms. Cook's death under workers comp law.

In a unanimous ruling on Nov. 29, a three-judge panel of the Utah Court of Appeals affirmed the labor board's ruling. The appellate court found that Ms. Cook's family failed to prove medical causation linking Zion's Bank's conduct to Ms. Cook's death.

The ruling noted that the labor board considered testimony from a medical panel consisting of “physicians with specializations in neurology, dermatology and dermatopathology.” The panel concluded that there was no medical link between Ms. Cook's death and the bank's denial of her time-off requests.

“Because the medical panel's report constitutes substantial evidence in this case, it would be improper for us to ignore the board's conclusion and to substitute our own judgment,” the ruling reads.