A state workers' compensation board correctly found that a permanently disabled ex-school worker should continue to receive benefits even after he was secretly videotaped helping to move a popcorn machine at a football game, an appeals court has ruled.

It was reasonable for the board to conclude that Bill Eardley's videotaped activities were “minimal and not inconsistent” with representations he'd made in response to questionnaires from the Unatego Central School District's workers' compensation insurance carrier, ruled an Appellate Division, Third Department, panel.

Justice William McCarthy pointed out that Workers' Compensation Law Section 114-a (1) provides that a claimant who “knowingly makes a false statement or representation … shall be disqualified from receiving any compensation directly attributable to such false statement.” But that was not the case for Eardley.