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 DecisionsWith a conflicting web of state versus state policies that would make any Conflict of Laws professor salivate, a federal district court in Pennsylvania found a choice of law provision...
War Between the States: Federal Court Decides PA Law Precludes Third-Party Indemnity Action Against Employer War Between the States: Federal Court Decides PA Law Precludes Third-Party Indemnity Action Against EmployerIn a split decision, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of an injured Tennessee worker’s intentional tort action against her employer based on the district court’s finding...
Divided Sixth Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Intentional Tort Action Filed against TN employer Divided Sixth Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Intentional Tort Action Filed against TN employerConstruing Va. Code Ann. § 65.2-503(C), which provides for PTD benefits, rather than PPD benefits, when an individual suffers the loss of use of two limbs in the same accident,...
Virginia Court Says Injuries Occurring Two Years Apart Can Actually Be From the “Same Accident” Virginia Court Says Injuries Occurring Two Years Apart Can Actually Be From the “Same Accident”In a proverbial “battle of the statutes,” an Iowa appellate court held that, under the facts of the case, a workers’ compensation decision granting a claimant’s application for alternate medical...
Iowa Claimant Allowed Alternate Treatment in Spite of Employer’s IME Request Iowa Claimant Allowed Alternate Treatment in Spite of Employer’s IME RequestIn a case of first impression, earlier today (January 13, 2020), the Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey affirmed an order of a state workers’ compensation judge...
NJ Court Approves Order Requiring Employer to Reimburse Worker for Medical Marijuana NJ Court Approves Order Requiring Employer to Reimburse Worker for Medical MarijuanaIn an unusual case that shows how traditional procedural rules can sometimes be disregarded in workers’ compensation cases, a New York appellate court affirmed a finding of the state’s Workers’...
NY Court Affirms Use of Hearsay Evidence to Establish Employee Fraud NY Court Affirms Use of Hearsay Evidence to Establish Employee FraudIn a deeply divided (3-2) decision, a New York appellate court reversed a decision by the state's Workers' Compensation Compensation Board that had found an injured, undocumented construction worker had failed to establish, through a diligent, relevant search for employment, that he maintained the required connection to the labor market....
Opinion Mondays: Those Hiring Undocumented Workers Should Not be Allowed to Game the System Opinion Mondays: Those Hiring Undocumented Workers Should Not be Allowed to Game the SystemAs is the rule in many jurisdictions [see Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 7.04], New York provides a presumption of compensability for accidents occurring during the course of employment which...
“Substantial” Evidence, Not Just “Some” Evidence Required to Rebut NY Presumption Regarding Unwitnessed Injuries “Substantial” Evidence, Not Just “Some” Evidence Required to Rebut NY Presumption Regarding Unwitnessed InjuriesAs I have noted many times on this blog site, more than 30 years ago my mentor, Dr. Arthur Larson, and I began a quirky—though humorous—New Year’s tradition. On an...
The Top 10 Bizarre Workers’ Comp Cases for 2019 The Top 10 Bizarre Workers’ Comp Cases for 2019Reversing itself (in relevant part), a divided Supreme Court of Idaho cast aside a year-old decision and, after re-argument, adopted what amounts to a reckless standard in so-called “intentional” tort...
Idaho High Court Does “a 180”: Employees May Sue Employers for Reckless Conduct Idaho High Court Does “a 180”: Employees May Sue Employers for Reckless ConductA recent decision from the Empire State, Matter of Keller v. Cumberland Farms, 2019 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 9113 (3d Dept. Dec. 19, 2019), illustrates a point sometimes lost on...
NY Court Bars IME Physician’s Testimony on Strict Procedural Grounds NY Court Bars IME Physician’s Testimony on Strict Procedural GroundsR.I. Gen. Laws § 45-19.1-1 (1956) does not create a conclusive presumption that cancer in firefighters arises out of and in the course of the employment, held a divided Supreme...
Divided Rhode Island Supreme Court Nixes Conclusive Cancer Presumptions for Firefighters Divided Rhode Island Supreme Court Nixes Conclusive Cancer Presumptions for Firefighters
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