Delaware’s high court says no coverage: a firefighter’s 2023 back flare-up was a recurrence, and a prior commutation left no carrier responsible to pay benefits.
Decided December 4, 2025, the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed a denial of workers’ compensation benefits to Wilmington firefighter Corey Ferrell after concluding his 2023 back complaints were a recurrence of his 2015 injury, not an aggravation caused by a new event. The case turned on which legal test applies when a later work incident involves the same body part previously compensated. The Court held the Industrial Accident Board applied the correct standard and that substantial evidence supported its findings. Justice LeGrow authored the opinion, with Chief Justice Seitz and Justice Valihura on the panel.
The underlying facts were straightforward. In 2015, while working part-time for the Belvedere Fire Company and full time for the Wilmington Fire Department, Ferrell was in a motor vehicle crash that injured his back. Imaging showed bulges and herniations. In 2017, he received permanency for 6% to his cervical spine and 5% to his thoracic spine. In 2018, he accepted a global commutation that released Belvedere’s workers’ compensation carrier from “future benefit liability.” He returned to work. In 2021, he was rear-ended in a non-work crash and later reported several weeks of significant pain and back spasms.
On October 6, 2023, while on duty with Wilmington FD, Ferrell carried two high-rise packs up approximately three flights of stairs after an officer did not pick up his assigned pack. He experienced shortness of breath and chest pain, later reporting back spasms. He also reported feeling a “pop” in his back, although the timeline of that report was unclear in the records. Hospital evaluation did not reveal a cardiac problem. His physician, Dr. Tucker, recommended physical therapy and ordered a December 2023 MRI, which showed disc protrusion and broad-based herniations in the same thoracic region implicated in 2015. He received chiropractic care from Dr. McPhatter; Dr. Park recommended an injection, which Ferrell declined. He was placed on modified duty on March 6, 2024.
Wilmington denied the claim, and the dispute went to the Industrial Accident Board. The Board heard conflicting medical opinions. Dr. Tucker supported a new injury or aggravation. Wilmington’s expert, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Matz, concluded the findings reflected a degenerative progression consistent with prior thoracic disc disease and that the stair-climb described ordinary duties, not an intervening or untoward event producing a new injury. The Board credited Dr. Matz, found the 2023 episode was a recurrence, and held the stair-climbing was not a genuine intervening event. Because the 2015 claim had been commuted, the Board denied the petition against Wilmington. The Superior Court affirmed on March 10, 2025.
The Supreme Court affirmed. It held that Standard Distributing Co. v. Nally governs allocation of liability between carriers when later symptoms are related to an earlier compensable injury, and that Duvall v. Charles Connell Roofing – addressing compensability for pre-existing conditions under usual exertion – did not apply to this carrier-allocation dispute. The Court agreed there was substantial evidence for a recurrence finding: the 2023 MRI overlapped the 2015 levels, the presentation tracked a slowly progressive thoracic disc disease, and the activity involved normal job duties without a discrete, untoward event. The Court also noted Ferrell’s earlier permanency ratings.
For insurers, the takeaway is practical: commutations truly close the file. If a claimant later experiences a recurrence with no clear intervening event, there may be no coverage path, even when the later employer denies liability.
