Court Applies Massachusetts Law to Maine Injury, Rejects Immunity Defense in Multi-State Staffing Arrangement A New Hampshire contractor that likely would have enjoyed workers’ compensation immunity under Maine law lost...
Maine Supreme Court: Massachusetts Law Strips Staffing Client of Workers’ Compensation Immunity Maine Supreme Court: Massachusetts Law Strips Staffing Client of Workers’ Compensation ImmunityNew York’s Court of Appeals recently affirmed an Appellate Division order blocking defendants in a personal injury action from using a Workers’ Compensation Board causation determination as collateral estoppel, holding...
NY High Court Holds JIWA Bars Collateral Estoppel Effect of Pre-Enactment Workers’ Comp Decisions NY High Court Holds JIWA Bars Collateral Estoppel Effect of Pre-Enactment Workers’ Comp DecisionsIn a case involving a Nebraska truck driver-farm laborer whose treatment for metastatic cancer was allegedly postponed by complications associated with a compensable hip injury and its resulting treatment, the...
Nebraska Supreme Court Affirms Denial of Death Benefits Where Work Injury Delayed Cancer Treatment Nebraska Supreme Court Affirms Denial of Death Benefits Where Work Injury Delayed Cancer TreatmentA North Carolina district manager who suffered a stroke while preparing for the opening of a restaurant location—and who allegedly waited hours before coworkers summoned emergency assistance—may not pursue negligence...
NC Court of Appeals: Exclusivity Doctrine Bars Negligence Suit Following Workplace Stroke NC Court of Appeals: Exclusivity Doctrine Bars Negligence Suit Following Workplace StrokeReiterating an important point, that in order to defeat a workers’ compensation claim it is generally insufficient to show that the injured worker was intoxicated at the time of the...
New Hampshire: Intoxication, Without Showing of Causation, Is Insufficient to Defeat Comp Claim New Hampshire: Intoxication, Without Showing of Causation, Is Insufficient to Defeat Comp ClaimNotice of the Texas non-subscribing employer’s occupational injury benefit plan was insufficient by itself to show that an employee had notice of an arbitration agreement referred to therein since the...
Texas: No Arbitration Where Employer Could Not Show Employee Had Notice of Arbitration Agreement Texas: No Arbitration Where Employer Could Not Show Employee Had Notice of Arbitration AgreementThe Supreme Court of Oklahoma recently held that a chiropractor is not qualified as an expert in diagnosing psychological illnesses such as depression. Accordingly, the report of a chiropractor as...
Oklahoma: Chiropractors May Not Offer Expert Testimony as to Psychological Overlay Oklahoma: Chiropractors May Not Offer Expert Testimony as to Psychological OverlayA Colorado appellate court recently held that hotels and restaurants that a workers’ compensation claimant patronized during authorized travel to obtain treatment by a specialist were not “medical providers” as...
Colorado: Hotels and Restaurants Are Not “Medical Providers” Colorado: Hotels and Restaurants Are Not “Medical Providers”In a complex medical malpractice diversity action involving multiple issues, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals recently affirmed a federal district court’s judgment on a $7 million verdict in favor...
10th Circuit: Under Collateral Source Rule, Evidence of Discounted Med Pay to Medical Providers By Workers’ Comp Payer May Not Be Considered By Jury 10th Circuit: Under Collateral Source Rule, Evidence of Discounted Med Pay to Medical Providers By Workers’ Comp Payer May Not Be Considered By JurySome years ago, my mentor, Arthur Larson, when commenting upon the issue of deviations within the workplace, wrote that courts generally recognize “that human beings do not run on tracks...
Pennsylvania: 5-Minute Deviation Defeated Workers’ Comp Claim Pennsylvania: 5-Minute Deviation Defeated Workers’ Comp ClaimThe Longshore Act provides that no compensation shall be payable if the injury “was occasioned solely by the intoxication of the employee” [33 U.S.C.S. § 903(c), emphasis added]. The Ninth...
Ninth Circuit Construes Longshore Act’s Intoxication Defense Provisions Ninth Circuit Construes Longshore Act’s Intoxication Defense ProvisionsIn an unpublished decision, Elster v. Fishman, 2013 Cal. App. Unpub. LEXIS 5158 (July 22, 2013) [check Cal. Rules of Court, Rule 8.1115(a) regarding rules related to citation], a California...
California: Legal Secretary’s IIED Claim Against Attorney and Firm Related to Pornographic Emails May Proceed California: Legal Secretary’s IIED Claim Against Attorney and Firm Related to Pornographic Emails May ProceedEggshell Skulls There’s a rule most of us learned early on in the first semester of Torts in law school: that there is ordinarily no allowance for an already weakened...
Note to Employers and Carriers: Don’t Give Up Too Early in Cases Involving Preexisting Disease or Condition Note to Employers and Carriers: Don’t Give Up Too Early in Cases Involving Preexisting Disease or ConditionYesterday (July 2), Governor Jay Nixon vetoed legislation [Senate Bill 34] that would have permitted created a state-run database system that would have contained basic information about workers’ compensation claims...
Missouri Governor Vetoes Bill That Would Have Established State-Wide Database of Comp Claims (and Claimants) Missouri Governor Vetoes Bill That Would Have Established State-Wide Database of Comp Claims (and Claimants)The Supreme Court of Vermont, in a split decision, recently held that while the AMA Guides (5th Ed.) are determinative with respect to “any determination of the existence and degree...
Vermont: AMA Guides Are Mandatory for Impairment Rating Purposes–Not Diagnosis of Condition Itself Vermont: AMA Guides Are Mandatory for Impairment Rating Purposes–Not Diagnosis of Condition ItselfAn Ohio appellate court recently reversed an award by the state’s Industrial Commission that allowed a claimant $4,000 of additional compensation for facial disfigurement under Ohio Rev. Code § 4123.57(B),...
Ohio: Court Reverses Award For Facial Disfigurement Where Commission’s Findings Were Inadequate Under Statute Ohio: Court Reverses Award For Facial Disfigurement Where Commission’s Findings Were Inadequate Under Statute
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