BISMARCK -- An injured worker receiving disability benefits must report farming income to the benefits bureaucracy, the North Dakota Supreme Court ruled late yesterday.

Avoiding insincerity helps as well.

In the case of Fettig vs. Workforce Safety and Insurance (No. 20060105) the Supreme Court affirmed a District Court ruling. That upheld a Workforce Safety and Insurance (WSI) ruling terminating Fettig's benefits and forced him to reimburse past payments based on misrepresentations he allegedly made.

The case sprang from an injury Fettig received as an oilfield pumper in 1993. He began collecting disability benefits from WSI the following year but neglected to inform them of the income he was receiving from farming.

In 2004 WSI ordered Fettig to repay more than $150,000 in disabaility benefits dating back to mid-1996 and permanent partial impairment (PPI) benefits that started in fall 2002. Fettig was also terminated from all WSI benefits.

The Supreme Court's unanimous opinion in agreement, written by Justice Dan Crothers, made note of Fettig's "deceptive" and "misleading" behavior when at official WSI hearings. This included feigning a limp, complaining of severe pain and claiming an inability to drive.

Such behaviour rightly led WSI to stop future benefits payments to Fettig, the Supreme Court noted, while his past false statements justified the WSI's reimbursement penalty.

"[E]vidence supports the conclusion that Fettig's false statements were sufficiently material, supporting both the forfeiture of future benefits and reimbursement of past disability benefit," Crothers wrote.