Ex-guard at center of workers’ comp battles dead at 41

BRUNSWICK – A former nuclear plant guard whose Workers’ Compensation case triggered a high-profile dispute that reached the state supreme court and the Legislature has died at age 41.

Arthur W. Kotch was found dead at his home May 15. Autopsy results were unavailable and his wife, Kimberly, said she did not know if his death was related to his injuries.

Kotch came under great stress after his workers’ comp battle made headlines this year, said his attorney, Janmarie Toker of Topsham. “It was all getting to be too much. His body just gave out on him,” she theorized.

The compensation case began in 1994 after Kotch hurt his back when pushing open a metal hatch atop a staircase in a security tower at Maine Yankee. Later, the former bodybuilder developed problems with a knee he first injured during the early 1980s while serving in the Marines.

His workers’ comp case was contested all the way to the Supreme Judicial Court, which handed down a ruling in his favor early this year. The justices agreed that some injuries that were not work-related must be taken into account if a combination of old injuries and newer on-the-job injuries prevented a return to work.

The opinion raised a ruckus in the business community, which feared higher insurance premiums would pose a threat to economic growth. The ensuing legislative battle to change what became known in Augusta as the Kotch decision was arguably the most fractious of the session.

The dispute ended in a compromise that left labor activists embittered. The outcome did not affect Kotch, who had to use a cane and knee braces and remained on full disability.

Kotch was uneasy with all of the attention his case had drawn but hoped some good could come from it.

“This is like airing your dirty laundry,” he said a few weeks before his death. “It’s like watching a soap opera on TV.”

Despite his feelings of stress and anxiety, Kotch felt duty-bound to tell his story to lawmakers, Toker said. “It took everything for him to testify before the Legislature. He was doing this for other people, not for himself.”

Kotch, a Chicago native, is survived by his wife and three children, Christopher, Scott and Belinda.