There is no physician-patient relationship between an independent medical examiner and a workers’ compensation claimant, held a Utah appellate court. In the absence of such a relationship, the physician did not owe the claimant the sort of duty... Read More

Acknowledging that if one business entity was the alter ego of another, the former could not be sued in tort for injuries sustained by an employee of the "alter ego" entity, a New York appellate court found the defendant-business entity failed... Read More

A divided Pennsylvania appellate court held a well owner and a separate firm that provided specialized services at the well were not statutory employers of a truck driver who contended he sustained injuries when a faulty storage tank value caused the... Read More

Applying Tennessee law and citing Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law , the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, in a divided decision, agreed that a Tennessee employer could not be liable for an intentional tort in connection with horrific injuries... Read More

A common law cause of action for bad-faith failure to pay workers’ compensation benefits may not be pursued against a third-party administrator of a workers’ compensation insurer, held the Supreme Court of Iowa, in a divided (5-2) decision... Read More

The exclusive remedy provision of the Rhode Island Workers’ Compensation Act is so strong, held the state’s Supreme Court, that it shielded a co-employee from tort liability in a dangerous incident involving horseplay. The evidence indicated... Read More

Where a plywood manufacturer recruited a worker as a candidate for a mechanic position in its maintenance department, undertook the right to control the worker’s day-to-day work activities, controlled the work the worker performed and paid him an... Read More

Building on an earlier decision in which the Ohio Supreme Court had determined that the Ohio contractor’s self-insurance plan [see Ohio Rev. Code Ann. § 4123.35(O)] provided immunity not only to the self-insuring general contractor, but also... Read More

The estate of an Ohio employee who sustained fatal injuries in an extrusion press accident may not maintain a civil action against the state’s Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (“BWC”) for its alleged negligent provision of safety... Read More

Adopting the dominant rule discussed in Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law , Ch. 111, § 111.03, the Supreme Court of Washington held that a co-employee enjoys immunity under the exclusive remedy provisions of the state’s workers’... Read More

An appellate court in Washington state held that it was error for a trial court to grant summary judgment in favor of a defendant, on exclusive remedy grounds, where the plaintiff alleged he was struck by a vehicle driven by the defendant, a fellow employee... Read More

A North Carolina appellate court held that the exclusive remedy provisions of the state’s Workers’ Compensation Act apply to bar civil actions against the employer for all employees—even those that are engaged in “ultra-hazardous”... Read More

In a decision that may produce ripples within the Texas construction industry, a state appellate court held that in order to enjoy the exclusive remedy defense, Tex. Lab. Code Ann. § 406.123(a) requires a general contractor to do something more than... Read More

In a split decision, the Supreme Court of Alaska held that where a plaintiff (a former employee) and his spouse sued the former employer, its workers’ compensation insurer, a private investigator, the employer’s attorney, and a doctor who... Read More

The Hawaii Workers’ Compensation Act’s bar on claims for injuries incurred in the course of the employment does not extend to injuries to a person’s reputation, held the state’s Supreme Court. Accordingly, where two county employees... Read More