Kansas: Undocumented Worker Due Comp Benefits in Spite of False Papers Used in Hiring Process

The use of a false name and identification papers to apply for a job does not render a worker’s employment contract void ab initio, so as to preclude the worker from receiving workers’ compensation benefits following a work-related injury, held the Supreme Court of Kansas. The court stressed that the definition “employee” should be liberally construed to bring workers within the provisions of the Act. It also noted that there was precedent refusing to void an employment contract for misrepresentation in the employment application, albeit in connection with the Federal Employer’s Liability Act [see White v. Thompson, 181 Kan. 485, 312 P.2d 612 (1957). The Court added that as long as the misrepresentation did not directly lead to the injury, the contract may be voidable but the employer should be liable so long as the claimant was employed.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Mera-Hernandez v. Unified School Dist. 223, 2017 Kan. LEXIS 113 (Mar. 24, 2017)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 66.03.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law