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Jan 6, 2025

Iowa Court Affirms Denial of Benefits re: COVID-19 Claim

In Collins v. Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority (DART), 2024 Iowa App. LEXIS 918 (Dec. 18, 2024), the Iowa Court of Appeals affirmed denial of workers’ compensation benefits to...

Iowa Court Affirms Denial of Benefits re: COVID-19 Claim Iowa Court Affirms Denial of Benefits re: COVID-19 Claim
Jan 6, 2025

Nebraska COVID-19 Claim Fails For Want of Expert Medical Evidence

In Spisa-Kline v. Mary Lanning Memorial Hospital, 2024 Neb. App. LEXIS 750 (Dec. 31, 2024), the Nebraska Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment for the employer in a workers’ compensation...

Nebraska COVID-19 Claim Fails For Want of Expert Medical Evidence Nebraska COVID-19 Claim Fails For Want of Expert Medical Evidence
Dec 31, 2024

Oregon Jaywalker Might Be Awarded Benefits

Appeals Court Examines Going and Coming Rule The Oregon Court of Appeals has reversed and remanded a Workers’ Compensation Board decision that had denied benefits to a worker injured while...

Oregon Jaywalker Might Be Awarded Benefits Oregon Jaywalker Might Be Awarded Benefits
Dec 30, 2024

NC Court of Appeals Reverses $28.9 Million Tort Judgment

Insurer Had No Duty to Defend Intentional Tort Claim Against Co-Employee In Ortez v. Penn Nat’l Sec. Ins. Co., 2024 N.C. App. LEXIS 1017 (Dec. 17, 2024), the North Carolina...

NC Court of Appeals Reverses $28.9 Million Tort Judgment NC Court of Appeals Reverses $28.9 Million Tort Judgment

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Dec 15, 2014

Maine Employer May Suspend Comp Benefits to Employee Who Mysteriously Disappeared

In a case with a bizarre setting—the injured employee mysteriously disappeared in March 2012, after being awarded and receiving workers’ compensation disability benefits for almost three years—the Supreme Judicial Court...

Maine Employer May Suspend Comp Benefits to Employee Who Mysteriously Disappeared Maine Employer May Suspend Comp Benefits to Employee Who Mysteriously Disappeared
Dec 12, 2014

Florida Court Reverses Award Requiring Employer to Pay for Kidney Removal Based on Hindrance of Treatment Doctrine

A Florida appellate court recently reversed an order by a Judge of Compensation Claims requiring the employer/carrier to provide Claimant with treatment for a renal mass/cancer to the extent that...

Florida Court Reverses Award Requiring Employer to Pay for Kidney Removal Based on Hindrance of Treatment Doctrine Florida Court Reverses Award Requiring Employer to Pay for Kidney Removal Based on Hindrance of Treatment Doctrine
Dec 9, 2014

Dependents of Ohio Worker Who Lived 4.5 Hours After Fall Awarded 1,225 Weeks of PPD Benefits

Continuing a line of decisions that have awarded permanent partial disability benefits to dependents of workers who sustain fatal injuries in a work-related incident, but who survive the incident for...

Dependents of Ohio Worker Who Lived 4.5 Hours After Fall Awarded 1,225 Weeks of PPD Benefits Dependents of Ohio Worker Who Lived 4.5 Hours After Fall Awarded 1,225 Weeks of PPD Benefits
Dec 7, 2014

Commentary: Florida Supreme Court Hints at How It May Decide Constitutionality of Florida Comp Act

In a decision handed down last Thursday [Morales v. Zenith Ins. Co., 2014 Fla. LEXIS 3555 (Dec. 4, 2014)], the Supreme Court of Florida may well have tipped its hand...

Commentary: Florida Supreme Court Hints at How It May Decide Constitutionality of Florida Comp Act Commentary: Florida Supreme Court Hints at How It May Decide Constitutionality of Florida Comp Act
Dec 4, 2014

Michigan Supreme Court Clarifies Independent Contractor-Employee Distinction

In a 6–1 decision, the Supreme Court of Michigan has reversed a 2013 decision of a special panel of the state’s Court of Appeals, finding that a landscape worker was...

Michigan Supreme Court Clarifies Independent Contractor-Employee Distinction Michigan Supreme Court Clarifies Independent Contractor-Employee Distinction
Nov 28, 2014

NY: Co-employee Immunity Bars Exercise Rider’s Suit For Crushed Foot From Falling Anvil

A civil action filed by one equestrian exercise rider against another for injuries sustained when an anvil owned by the defendant fell from defendant’s vehicle and crushed plaintiff’s foot is...

NY: Co-employee Immunity Bars Exercise Rider’s Suit For Crushed Foot From Falling Anvil NY: Co-employee Immunity Bars Exercise Rider’s Suit For Crushed Foot From Falling Anvil
Nov 19, 2014

Illinois Widow Gets Death Benefits after Husband Succumbs to Neisseria Meningitides Contracted on Brazilian Business Trip

In a decision that may provide some indication as to how the court might decide a claim involving Ebola exposure, an Illinois appellate court has affirmed a finding by the...

Illinois Widow Gets Death Benefits after Husband Succumbs to Neisseria Meningitides Contracted on Brazilian Business Trip Illinois Widow Gets Death Benefits after Husband Succumbs to Neisseria Meningitides Contracted on Brazilian Business Trip
Nov 18, 2014

Delaware Employer’s Inability to Rehire Undocumented Worker Following Injury is Its Worry, Not the Worker’s

Observing that the employee must must be taken as he or she was hired, that in determining an employee’s “earning power” following an injury, Delaware courts are authorized to consider...

Delaware Employer’s Inability to Rehire Undocumented Worker Following Injury is Its Worry, Not the Worker’s Delaware Employer’s Inability to Rehire Undocumented Worker Following Injury is Its Worry, Not the Worker’s
Nov 11, 2014

“Dog Bites Man”: Pennsylvania Court Affirms Award for Worker Bitten By Co-Worker’s Canine

Yesterday, a Pennsylvania appellate court affirmed an order by the state’s Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board awarding workers’ compensation benefits to a worker who sustained facial lacerations and permanent scarring when...

“Dog Bites Man”: Pennsylvania Court Affirms Award for Worker Bitten By Co-Worker’s Canine “Dog Bites Man”: Pennsylvania Court Affirms Award for Worker Bitten By Co-Worker’s Canine
Nov 6, 2014

Pennsylvania Ex-Husband’s LHWCA Benefits Subject to Attachment by Former Spouse for Unpaid Alimony

Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act disability benefits are subject to attachment by a worker’s former spouse, held a Pennsylvania court yesterday in Uveges v. Uveges, 2014 PA Super 251, 2014...

Pennsylvania Ex-Husband’s LHWCA Benefits Subject to Attachment by Former Spouse for Unpaid Alimony Pennsylvania Ex-Husband’s LHWCA Benefits Subject to Attachment by Former Spouse for Unpaid Alimony
Nov 4, 2014

Iowa: Surveillance Videos of Injured Workers Not Protected by Work Product Privilege

A divided Court of Appeals of Iowa, in Iowa Insurance Institute v. Core Group of the Iowa Association for Justice, 2014 Iowa App. LEXIS 1067 (Oct. 29, 2014), has held...

Iowa: Surveillance Videos of Injured Workers Not Protected by Work Product Privilege Iowa: Surveillance Videos of Injured Workers Not Protected by Work Product Privilege
Oct 25, 2014

Arkansas: The Second You’re Off the Clock, You’re On Your Own

Construing A.C.A. § 11–9–102(4)(B)(iii), which provides in relevant part that a compensable injury does not include any injury inflicted upon the employee at a time when employment services were not...

Arkansas: The Second You’re Off the Clock, You’re On Your Own Arkansas: The Second You’re Off the Clock, You’re On Your Own

New Comments

  • trob: Excellent question. My thought is that the employer was following what it assumed was the typical practice of seeking to protect its "subrogation" interest in state court; in virtually all jurisdictions, the state trial courts are where subrogation issues are litigated. What differed here, of course, was that it wasn't a standard subrogation case, i.e., the employee's work-related injury wasn't ca...
  • ramivou: Why didn't they file it with the state Commission instead?
  • Thomas A. Robinson: I suspect that ACME could seek contractual indemnity, as you note, either from the staffing agency or its carrier. The goal of the Board or agency generally is to see to the proper award of benefits for compensable injuries. Allowing the "aggrieved" parties to sort it out later is completely consistent with the overall theory of workers' compensation. Many thanks for the comment. Best wishes.
  • Barry Stinson: I wonder if Acme's insurer could seek contractural indemnity from Variety's insurer outside of the WC system.
  • Michael C. Duff: The conceptual distinction is between joint causation and presumptive single causation.
  • Thomas A. Robinson: Sorry, I don't/can't provide legal advice. Best wishes, however.
  • Ken Smith: What can I do when my attorney blows my case with an incomplete RB89
  • Thomas A. Robinson: Good point, although the interesting thing about the case--at least to me--is that it discusses the important "injury by accident" issue. That issue, present in at least a plurality of state acts, is largely ignored by Commissions, Boards, and Courts these days. Here, also, the case was so fact-specific that even it had been issued as published, it would be factually distinguishable from many othe...
  • kathlyn gorman: It should have been noted in your discussion that this is an unpublished opinion of the North Carolina Court of Appeals. Thus, it does not constitute controlling legal authority.
  • Thomas A. Robinson: You're correct. Ordinarily, I can depend upon Alabama to provide me with at least one case for "the List." I'll bet 2022 will unearth something bizarre from the Great State of Alabama. Take care.