A South Carolina employee alleged that his manager threatened him, accused him of dishonesty, called the police, suspended him, and ultimately fired him. He then sued his employer for negligent...
South Carolina’s Mental-Injury Paradox South Carolina’s Mental-Injury ParadoxMany disputes over physician choice in workers’ compensation arise when an injured worker seeks treatment from a doctor of his or her own choosing. Hayes v. Christian Retirement Homes, Inc.,...
Iowa Supreme Court: Employer Not Bound by Opinion of Its Own Treating Physician Iowa Supreme Court: Employer Not Bound by Opinion of Its Own Treating PhysicianCourt 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 DecisionsAllegations that a New Jersey company maintained an unwritten policy of avoiding the use of a lock-out, tag-out (“LOTO”) safety feature on a machine because doing so would require a...
Jury-Rigged “Safety” Mechanism Subjects NJ Employer to Substantially Certain Tort Claim Jury-Rigged “Safety” Mechanism Subjects NJ Employer to Substantially Certain Tort ClaimWhere a residential counselor at a Pennsylvania inpatient psychiatric facility sought and successfully secured a $40,000 settlement from her employer in a workers’ compensation proceeding in connection with injuries she...
Settlement of Comp Claim Bars Subsequent Civil Action Against Employer on “Third Party Attack” Theory Settlement of Comp Claim Bars Subsequent Civil Action Against Employer on “Third Party Attack” TheoryVa. Code § 65.2-306(A)(4) bars workers’ compensation claims for injuries that, inter alia, result from a claimant’s willful misconduct in refusing “to perform a duty required by statute.” In that...
Failure to Wear Seatbelt Proves Fatal to Virginia Driver’s Claim Failure to Wear Seatbelt Proves Fatal to Virginia Driver’s ClaimA Virginia appellate court recently affirmed a determination by the state’s Commission which, in a divided decision, had awarded workers’ compensation benefits to an administrative assistant who contended she was...
Virginia Court Affirms Award for Brown Recluse Spider Bite Virginia Court Affirms Award for Brown Recluse Spider BiteStressing that under Georgia law, it is the right to control, not the actual exercise of that control, which determines whether the work relationship is one of employer and employee,...
Georgia Husband/Wife Driving Team Were Employees: Wife’s Tort Action Barred by Exclusivity Georgia Husband/Wife Driving Team Were Employees: Wife’s Tort Action Barred by ExclusivityThe world is transfixed by a new enemy: the coronavirus. I just received an email from my bank reminding me how I can use my accounts’ electronic features so as...
For Workers’ Comp World, Coronavirus is a Real “Snake in the Grass” For Workers’ Comp World, Coronavirus is a Real “Snake in the Grass”In a case replete with irony, as many of us scurry around gathering the plethora of information required to file our annual individual income tax returns, a federal district court...
What Goes Around Comes Around: IRS Employee May Not Recover for Stress Associated with Pursuing Injury Claim What Goes Around Comes Around: IRS Employee May Not Recover for Stress Associated with Pursuing Injury ClaimReversing a decision of the state’s Court of Appeals, and side-stepping — at least to some degree — the issue of illicit relationships, the Supreme Court of South Carolina found...
SC Supreme Court Says Deceased Worker’s “Girlfriend” Failed to Show Dependency SC Supreme Court Says Deceased Worker’s “Girlfriend” Failed to Show DependencyWhere a Virginia police officer in 2009 and 2010 signed acknowledgments that he had received a copy of Virginia’s special heart-lung presumption favoring police officers and certain others, the state’s...
Virginia Police Officer’s Knowledge of Special Heart-Lung Presumption Does Not Trigger Statute of Limitations Virginia Police Officer’s Knowledge of Special Heart-Lung Presumption Does Not Trigger Statute of LimitationsWhere a law judge found that an injured New York worker was entitled to a PPD classification based on impairments to her cervical and lumbar spine, entitling her to nonschedule...
NY Court Disapproves of Board’s “Virtual Banking” of Benefits Where Claimant Returns to Work at Preinjury Wages NY Court Disapproves of Board’s “Virtual Banking” of Benefits Where Claimant Returns to Work at Preinjury WagesIn relevant part, N.Y. Workers’ Comp. Law § 11 prohibits third-party claims for indemnification and contribution against an employer unless the injured employee has sustained a “grave injury” as defined...
Uninsured NY Employer May Not Use “Grave Injury” Statute to Defend 3rd-Party Indemnity Claim Uninsured NY Employer May Not Use “Grave Injury” Statute to Defend 3rd-Party Indemnity ClaimStressing that the Michigan Supreme Court’s Stark decision had not set forth four “factors” to be weighed in determining whether a claimant’s going and coming injury nevertheless occurred in the...
Michigan Auditor’s Auto Accident Injury Claim Not Barred by Going and Coming Rule Michigan Auditor’s Auto Accident Injury Claim Not Barred by Going and Coming Rule
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