The Supreme Court of Utah noted that although the intentional tort exception to workers’ compensation exclusivity clearly applied to claims governed by the state’s Workers’ Compensation Act (WCA), the issue had never been decided for... Read More

A Delaware Superior Court held that it was for the state’s Industrial Accident Board, not the trial court, to determine whether COVID-19 was an occupational disease and, therefore, whether the plaintiff’s action against an employer for alleged... Read More

Where a New York employer had no active workers’ compensation policy in effect on the date the claimant was determined to have been disabled due to an occupational disease—It appeared to have closed its doors—but such a policy did exist... Read More

Noting that in order to recover benefits for a stress-related condition under North Carolina's definition of occupational disease, it was insufficient merely to show that the employee endured "employment stressors" as a part of her work... Read More

Stressing that in New York, an occupational disease is one "resulting from the nature of employment and contracted therein [see N.Y. Workers' Comp. Law § 2[15]], and not from environmental conditions at the workplace , a state appellate... Read More

Acknowledging that in Washington there were some circumstances in which an employee could recover for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), e.g., if it had been caused by a sudden and tangible happening, and had occurred “from without,” ... Read More

A Florida appellate court held that a Judge of Compensation Claims erred in awarding workers’ compensation benefits to a claimant for an alleged toxic exposure claim in the form of fungal meningitis in as much as the statutes in question—§... Read More

A divided Maryland appellate court held sufficient evidence existed to support a finding that a paramedic/firefighter had, over time, developed meniscal tears in his right knee and that he, therefore, qualified for benefits for an occupational disease... Read More

A finding by the New York Workers’ Compensation Board that a worker had failed to establish his claim for an occupational disease in the form of allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis did not prevent the worker from subsequently establishing an... Read More

In Oregon, the old adage, “The employer takes employees as it finds them,” doesn’t always apply. With regard to occupational disease claims, for example, the claimant must prove that his or her employment was the “major contributing... Read More

A county public defender, who alleged that she sustained a mental injury in the form of PTSD following a harrowing period of time in which she was allegedly stalked and harassed by a "client," may move ahead with a civil action filed against... Read More

As is the case in a number of jurisdictions, in Oregon a presumptively responsible employer in an occupational disease claim may avoid liability, shifting such liability to a previous employment, if it can show that it was “impossible” for... Read More

A state appellate court affirmed a decision by a trial court that a first responder presented evidence sufficient to prove that his menisci tears were an occupational disease under Md. Code Ann., Lab. & Empl. § 9-502(d)(1)(i) (1991, 2016 Repl... Read More

A Louisiana appellate court affirmed a ruling by a workers’ compensation judge that the claimant, an office worker, had not suffered an occupational disease within the meaning of the state’s Workers’ Compensation Act related to her alleged... Read More

Receipt of short-term disability benefits under an employer-sponsored plan does not toll the two-year statute of limitations for the filing of an occupational disease claim in Alabama where there was nothing in the paperwork associated with the benefits... Read More