Maryland court shuts down county’s bid to offset workers’ comp costs

The Maryland Workers’ Compensation Commission sided with Dennie on the hearing loss claim, awarding him just over $4,700 in permanent partial disability benefits. 

Montgomery County then tried to offset that award against the retirement benefits it was already paying Dennie, arguing that it should not have to pay twice. The strategy worked at first – a circuit court agreed with the county and zeroed out its workers’ compensation liability entirely. 

Dennie appealed, and on March 2, 2026, the appellate court came down firmly on his side. 

The court’s reasoning is straightforward and instructive. Maryland law allows a government employer to offset workers’ compensation payments against other benefits it is paying – but only when both sets of payments cover the same injury. The key question was whether Dennie’s retirement benefit covered his hearing loss. It did not. His partial disability retirement was granted for a defined, enumerated list of conditions, and hearing loss was not among them. There was no overlap, no double payment, and therefore no valid basis for the offset. 

The court contrasted this with an earlier case involving a fellow Montgomery County firefighter who had retired on a total disability benefit – a broader benefit that covers all work-related injuries and diseases, including those that emerge after retirement. In that case, the offset was allowed, because the retirement benefit effectively covered everything, including the hearing loss at issue. The distinction is stark: total disability, broad coverage, offset allowed. Partial disability, condition-specific coverage, offset denied.