When a press machine exploded at the H. Hansen Industries plant in Toledo, a metal beam struck machinist Arthur Heilman, 58, knocking him out. Despite an emergency craniotomy, he never regained consciousness and died two days later. 

His wife, Patricia, on her husband’s behalf, sought and won workers’ compensation benefits for his death. But given Arthur Heilman sustained spinal injuries and hardly moved between the accident and his death, she also sought “loss of use” benefits reserved for those who lose a body part or functional use of it on the job, court records show. 

The Ohio Industrial Commission – a quasi-judicial body composed of three commissioners, all appointed by the governor, that hears workers’ compensation disputes that bubble up from the staff level – first dismissed Heilman’s claim in 2021, finding Patricia Heilman failed to prove her late husband’s loss of use. The Ohio Supreme Court reversed the decision, finding the commissioners improperly considered some of the conflicting opinions from physicians who studied the record. 

Late last year, the commissioners denied Heilman’s claim again. They said Ohio law doesn’t allow loss of use claims resulting from vision and hearing loss due to brain stem dysfunction alone. And they disputed the notion that Heilman was paralyzed before his death.

Frank Gallucci, an attorney for Heilman, is now trying a new approach. Earlier this month, he filed a lawsuit in court seeking a reversal, alleging each of the three commissioners is legally unqualified to do the job, which by law requires six years of “recognized expertise in the field of workers’ compensation.” 

The requirement reflects the technical nature of the job and the workload of 86,000 claims in calendar year 2024 alone. 

“We have three commissioners that have never handled a case, attended a hearing, or represented a party on behalf of either side,” Gallucci said in an interview, emphasizing that the commission’s lack of proper experience harms both the injured workers and their employers, all of whom want legally sound rulings. 

Gallucci isn’t the only one saying the three commissioners are, as a matter of law, in over their heads. 

At least two other lawsuits on behalf of injured workers want commission decisions reversed, arguing the people who made them lacked the basic requirements the law demands. 

For instance, lawyers for a minor child filed one such lawsuit for his late father, Christopher Sebring, who died at work for a landscaping company on July 5, 2023. And Suzane Duke, a woman who says she strained her back while working for Frito Lay, had a benefits claim denied by the Industrial Commission. 

John Burke, an attorney for Duke and Sebring who filed lawsuits challenging the commission, likened the situation to a layman being named a judge. 

“Our argument is they don’t meet that statutory qualifications and thus shouldn’t be serving in that position,” he said. “Don’t you want people who have legal, workers’ compensation experience making the decision about workers’ compensation matters?”

Who are the three industrial commissioners?

Ohio’s three industrial commissioners, all appointed by Gov. Mike DeWine, are Jim Hughes, the chairman, plus Cheri Hottinger and Daniel Massey. 

According to their official biographies, Hughes worked as both a prosecutor and a state lawmaker. Hottinger worked as a city councilor and was President and CEO of the Newark Area Chamber of Commerce. And Massey worked in the Ohio Attorney General’s office and in private practice as a lawyer. None of their histories mention any direct intersection with the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation. 

Hughes received about $171,000 in salary last year. Hottinger and Massey both made about $157,000. 

Some have connections to Ohio Republican politics. Hughes served for more than a decade as a Republican state lawmaker. Hottinger is married to Jay Hottinger, who worked as a Republican state lawmaker for 20 years. 

The Industrial Commission referred inquiries to a communications person, who didn’t return a phone call. 

Dan Tierney, a spokesman for the governor, emphasized some of their work in the insurance sector. 

For instance, Hughes chaired an insurance committee in the legislature; Massey represented the Department of Insurance (not the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation) as an attorney; and Hottinger regularly addressed employer-side workers’ compensation issues while running the Chamber of Commerce office. 

“Being able to look at whether terms of an insurance policy apply to a set of facts, certainly there has been direct experience with Mr. Hughes and Massey, and Mrs. Hottinger very specifically has worked with workers’ compensation mitigation plans with the Chamber of Commerce,” Tierney said.

John Fortney, a spokesperson for Senate Republicans who effectively control any confirmation vote, said all three are “eminently qualified and thoroughly vetted.” 

“This amounts to nothing more than a poor legal strategy to avoid having claims heard by the members of the Industrial Commission,” he said. 

What the industrial commission told the judge 

The Duke and Sebring lawsuits are both pending under Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Bill Sperlazza. He is set to rule on state motions to dismiss the two cases any day now. 

There, state attorneys said the plaintiffs’ lawsuits were improperly filed and didn’t follow the impeachment rules established by the Ohio Constitution to remove public officers, which require petitioners to gather hundreds of thousands of signatures. 

State lawyers didn’t argue the commissioners have the proper experience and expertise. Rather, they cite the Senate’s confirmation vote as evidence of qualifications. 

“If they had not met these specific qualifications, the senate could not have confirmed them,” they argued in a filing. “Additionally, it should be noted that the time to challenge these appointments was at the public senate committee hearings. This time has long since passed and there is no record that Duke lodged any objections to any commissioner’s qualifications in the public hearing before the committee.”

Burke, in an interview, noted that no party, in court or in comments to the media, is arguing that the commissioners meet the legal requirements for the job. They’re just saying the commissioners were appointed, therefore they are qualified. 

“Their position is essentially that the king can do no wrong,” he said. “That’s not really the standard.”