Weathers, Robert

Robert Weathers, a former New England Patriots football player, settled a prior cumulative-trauma claim (ADJ7804822) via a 2011 Compromise and Release for $175,000, with body parts listed in an incorporated Addendum A rather than in paragraph 1 of the C&R form. In 2020 he filed a new claim (ADJ13591101) for the same employer, period, and occupation, alleging brain, neurological, and psychiatric injuries from concussive blows. The WCJ found the new claim barred by res judicata based on the prior OACR. The Board granted reconsideration, holding that defendant failed to meet its burden of proving issue preclusion because no evidence from the prior case was actually admitted into the current record—judicial notice alone was insufficient—and the newly pleaded brain/neuro/nervous system body parts were not listed in the prior C&R. The Board rescinded the findings and remanded for further proceedings to develop the evidentiary record.