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 ClaimIn a divided decision, a New York appellate court held that where a Manpower, Inc. temporary worker was assigned to conduct inventory control at a pharmaceutical plant operated by two...
Judicial Estoppel Bars NY Defendants’ Exclusive Remedy Defense Judicial Estoppel Bars NY Defendants’ Exclusive Remedy DefenseAcknowledging that a trial court in a declaratory action had fixed the injured employee’s total damages in his third-party tort claim at almost $2 million, designating $1,500,000 of that total...
PA Employer’s Right to Subrogation is “Absolute” PA Employer’s Right to Subrogation is “Absolute”The exclusive remedy provisions of the Illinois Workers' Compensation Act (Act)—820 ILCS 305/5(a), 11— do not extend to a general contractor who paid workers’ compensation insurance premiums and benefits for...
IL Contractor Who Provides Coverage for Subcontractor’s Workers Not Immune From Suit IL Contractor Who Provides Coverage for Subcontractor’s Workers Not Immune From SuitCapping secondary mental impairment benefits—pursuant to NMSA 1978, Section 52-1-41(C)(2015)—to the number of weeks allowable for the worker’s original physical injury [e.g., 150 weeks where the mental injury is secondary...
New Mexico Cannot Differentiate Between Secondary Mental Benefits and Secondary Physical Benefits New Mexico Cannot Differentiate Between Secondary Mental Benefits and Secondary Physical BenefitsRelying upon the “quasi-course of employment” concept set forth in Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 10.05, a division of the Court of Appeals of Colorado affirmed an order of the...
Colorado Court Says Injuries Sustained En Route to Medical Appointment Not Always Compensable Colorado Court Says Injuries Sustained En Route to Medical Appointment Not Always CompensableStressing that the focus of the personal comfort doctrine was to determine if an employee’s actions occurred during the course of the employment, the Court of Appeals of Oregon held...
Establishing “Personal Comfort” Activity Is Only Half the Battle, says OR Court Establishing “Personal Comfort” Activity Is Only Half the Battle, says OR CourtIllustrating that it is for the New York Workers’ Compensation Board to weigh the evidence, even when that evidence has been presented to a law judge hearing the case, a...
NY Court Affirms Award for Flight Attendant’s Allergy to Uniforms NY Court Affirms Award for Flight Attendant’s Allergy to UniformsYesterday, the Supreme Court of New Jersey, reversing a decision of the Superior Court, Appellate Division [see 466 N.J. Super. 160, 245 A.3d 1019 (App. Div. 2021)], found that serious injuries...
NJ Librarian’s Parking Lot Injuries When Struck by Snowplow are Compensable NJ Librarian’s Parking Lot Injuries When Struck by Snowplow are CompensableApplying the personal comfort doctrine [see Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 21.01, et seq.], pursuant to which small, temporary departures from work to administer to personal comforts or convenience are...
PA Court Agrees Injuries Were Compensable under Personal Comfort Doctrine PA Court Agrees Injuries Were Compensable under Personal Comfort DoctrineIn early January, one can reliably count on at least two things: first, that we’ll be bombarded by television commercials hawking diet aids, and second, that someone in the New...
The Case of the Missing Case The Case of the Missing CaseThe Supreme Court of Delaware affirmed the denial of workers’ compensation benefits to a courthouse employee who sustained injuries in a sinkhole accident near—but not on the courthouse property [Browning...
Delaware High Court Says Sinkhole Injuries Were Not Compensable Delaware High Court Says Sinkhole Injuries Were Not CompensableIn a case involving an utterly bizarre fact pattern, as well as a legal battle stretching out over the bulk of a decade, the Supreme Court of California, in a 5-2 decision, held that a civil action for negligence and misrepresentation filed by two private citizens against...
Opinion Mondays: Is California’s “Posse Law” Passe? Opinion Mondays: Is California’s “Posse Law” Passe?
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