Workers' Compensation

Recent Posts

Massachusetts: Court Adopts "Sufficient Significant Contacts" Test for Out-of-State Injuries
Posted on 21 Nov 2020 by Thomas A. Robinson

The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, in a case of first impression, adopted the "sufficient significant contacts" test for determining whether the Commonwealth had jurisdiction over an extra-territorial work-related injury. It held the... Read More

United States: Court Finds Choice of Law Provision in Contract Unenforceable
Posted on 30 Jan 2020 by Thomas A. Robinson

Finding a choice of law provision in a contract of sale between two businesses was unenforceable because Pennsylvania, the state where the fatal work-related injury occurred, had a “materially greater” connection to the matter than did Texas... Read More

Oregon: Court Construes Post-Smothers Statute of Limitations Issue
Posted on 4 Jul 2019 by Thomas A. Robinson

A post- Smothers [see Smothers v. Gresham Transfer, Inc. , 332 Ore. 83, 23 P3d 333 (2001), overruled by Horton v. Or. Health & Sci. Univ. , 359 Ore. 168, 376 P.3d 998 (2016)] statute of limitations, ORS 656.019(2)(a), which allows a civil action to... Read More

Arizona: Law of State Where Benefits Are Paid Controls Important Assignment Rights to Third-Party Claim
Posted on 8 Feb 2019 by Thomas A. Robinson

The law of the state in which compensation is paid ordinarily governs an employee’s claim against an alleged third-party tortfeasor. Accordingly, where Arizona law gave the injured employee the exclusive right to maintain a third-party action for... Read More

Nebraska: Nonresident Corporation, With Limited Contacts, is Not an “Employer”
Posted on 18 Jan 2019 by Thomas A. Robinson

Where a Washington seafood corporation recruited workers in Nebraska, hosting them at a hotel conference room, and completing drug testing on those who were hired, but performed no actual work in Nebraska and did not frequently have employees either as... Read More

United States: North Dakota Need Not Subordinate its Workers’ Comp Death Benefits Statute to Colorado’s More Liberal Provisions
Posted on 11 Aug 2017 by Thomas A. Robinson

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals held that the widow of a Colorado resident killed in a traffic accident while working in North Dakota could not successfully challenge—on constitutional grounds—a North Dakota statute that suspended her previously... Read More

West Virginia: Tennessee Worker’s Death at Kentucky Coal Mine Not Governed by West Virginia Workers’ Compensation Law
Posted on 14 Apr 2017 by Thomas A. Robinson

In a divided memorandum decision, the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia affirmed a circuit court’s finding that the widow of worker killed in a forklift accident at a Kentucky coal mine may not maintain a deliberate intent action against... Read More