Worker used fake identity to get hired, benefits still stand

On March 17, 2025, a trench he was working in collapsed, burying him to the shoulders in mud and pinning his chest against a pipe. A coworker pulled him out. He was diagnosed with four broken ribs, and later with a knee tear and a herniated disc. 

When he sought benefits, the employer refused, pointing to his “misrepresentation of identity and fraud.” Its argument: it never would have hired him without the false identity, so no valid contract of hire existed – and no contract means no workers’ comp. 

The Board rejected that. Tennessee’s statute, it noted, defines an employee as any person “whether lawfully or unlawfully employed” under a contract of hire. The employer was plainly “using the services of Employee for pay,” and his unlawful status did not undo that. 

The panel also refused to widen the state’s misrepresentation defense. Under existing precedent, an employer can defeat a claim only by proving the worker lied about a physical condition, relied on that lie in hiring, and that the lie was causally linked to the injury. This worker lied about who he was, not his health – and that lie had nothing to do with the trench giving way. Expanding the defense to cover identity fraud, the Board wrote, is a job for “the Tennessee Supreme Court or the General Assembly.” 

The employer did win one point. The Board modified the order so the company pays only for medical bills issued in the worker’s real name.