IA Reads No Suitability Requirement into § 85.34(2)(v) The Iowa Court of Appeals affirmed a commissioner’s decision limiting a drywall worker’s permanent partial disability recovery to his functional impairment after...
Offer of Higher-Paying Work Limits Permanent Disability Award Offer of Higher-Paying Work Limits Permanent Disability AwardSubway Cleaner Who Witnessed a Platform Injury A New York appellate court recently affirmed a Workers’ Compensation Board decision disallowing a subway-station cleaner’s PTSD claim after he witnessed a woman’s...
NY PTSD Claim Fails Under Pre-Amendment Stress Standard NY PTSD Claim Fails Under Pre-Amendment Stress StandardAL Supreme Court: HR’s Role Was a Jury Question The Alabama Supreme Court, by a 5–4 vote, affirmed liability for retaliatory discharge where the evidence permitted a jury to find...
Who Made the Firing Decision? Alabama Court Upholds Retaliation Finding Who Made the Firing Decision? Alabama Court Upholds Retaliation FindingNY Bus Driver’s Crash and Arrhythmia A New York appellate court has affirmed a Workers’ Compensation Board finding that a school bus driver’s injuries and death arose out of his...
Uncertain Cardiac Sequence Does Not Defeat NY Bus Driver’s Claim Uncertain Cardiac Sequence Does Not Defeat NY Bus Driver’s ClaimExtensively quoting from Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law and reiterating the state’s two-prong test to invoke the so-called “dual capacity doctrine” as an exception to the exclusive remedy provided by the...
Illinois: Wrongful Death Action Against Employer Alleging “Dual Capacity” Fails Illinois: Wrongful Death Action Against Employer Alleging “Dual Capacity” FailsIn Ohio, like most jurisdictions, an employer or carrier that provides an injured worker with workers’ compensation benefits enjoys a subrogation interest, to the extent of such payment, in any...
Ohio: Injured Employee Settles 3rd Party Claim for $15,000, Owes Subrogated Employer $61,000 Ohio: Injured Employee Settles 3rd Party Claim for $15,000, Owes Subrogated Employer $61,000Under workers’ compensation law’s so-called “going and coming” rule, for an employee having fixed hours and place of work, injuries sustained en route to or from the workplace are generally...
Illinois: Workers’ Comp’s “Traveling Employee” Rule May Not Be Expanded to Tort Arena Illinois: Workers’ Comp’s “Traveling Employee” Rule May Not Be Expanded to Tort ArenaIn the determination of any contested workers’ compensation claim, Hawaii favors the claimant with a presumption of compensability [HRS § 386–85]. Construing that presumption, a state appellate court recently affirmed...
Hawaii: Employer Successfully Rebuts Presumption of Compensability Related to Chain-Smoking, Hypertensive Employee Hawaii: Employer Successfully Rebuts Presumption of Compensability Related to Chain-Smoking, Hypertensive EmployeeIllustrating the significant deference given to the Commission’s factual findings, an Arkansas appellate court recently affirmed the denial of benefits to an employee who sustained injuries when he slipped and...
Arkansas: Fall in Company Parking Lot While Returning Lunch Box is Not Compensable Arkansas: Fall in Company Parking Lot While Returning Lunch Box is Not CompensableIn many states, the death benefit owed to a surviving spouse is commuted, sometimes at a significant discount, if the surviving spouse remarries. The Missouri statute, § 287.240(4)(a) R.S. Mo.,...
Missouri: Surviving Spouse’s “Remarriage” Benefit Not Limited to Commutation of Her Share of Death Benefits Missouri: Surviving Spouse’s “Remarriage” Benefit Not Limited to Commutation of Her Share of Death BenefitsAn Oregon appellate court recently affirmed a decision by the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board that concluded claimant’s subsistence and travel pay were “wages” for purposes of determining claimant’s TTD benefits...
Oregon: AWW Must Include “Subsistence Allowance” and Travel Pay for California Brick Mason Oregon: AWW Must Include “Subsistence Allowance” and Travel Pay for California Brick MasonReiterating 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 Jury
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