A Missouri appellate court affirmed a decision by the state’s Labor and industrial Relations Commission that held a worker’s death from a heat stroke was a compensable accident, thus barring a tort action filed by the worker’s nondependent parents against the worker...
The North Carolina Industrial Commission has broad discretion in refusing to order sanctions for allegedly “stubborn, unfounded litigiousness,” reiterated a state appellate court. Accordingly, it was within the province of the Commission to refuse to impose sanctions...
Stressing that a person who is not a party to a contract is not bound by its terms, a Maryland appellate court held that a widow was not bound by a settlement agreement signed by her husband that purported to release not only the husband's rights to further...
The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, in a memorandum decision, affirmed a decision of the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board of Review that denied dependent’s benefits and fatal dependent’s benefits to the daughter of a worker...
A self-employed spouse, who separated from his wife two years before her work-related death is not entitled to workers’ compensation dependency benefits as he failed to show that he received a substantial portion of support from his estranged wife at the...
A divided Court of Appeals of Arkansas held that the clear language of Ark. Code Ann. § 11–9–527 did not allow for termination of a minor child’s survivor benefits upon termination of the employee’s parental rights or adoption. Six...
Following the pattern of a number of states, Mississippi allows sole proprietors, partners in a partnership, or owners of 15 percent or more of a corporation to elect to be exempt from the state’s Workers’ Compensation Act if the partner, owner, or proprietor delivers...
A North Carolina appellate court affirmed a decision of the state’s Industrial Commission awarding $3,000 in attorney fees to a claimant’s attorney, rather than the $37,537.50 the attorney had requested. Observing that the claimant’s husband had...
The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed a trial court’s order granting summary judgment to an employer in a wrongful death action filed by the mother of a deceased employee, agreeing that the exclusive remedy provisions of the Georgia Workers’ Compensation...
An estate is not a “person” entitled to pursue a claim under ORS 656.218(3), held a divided Court of Appeals of Oregon. Accordingly, where the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board upheld an insurer’s denial of a claim and, while the matter was on appeal, the claimant...
Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter , is a leading commentator and expert on the law of workers’ compensation. At the core of the American system of workers’ compensation...
In a case that shows what can happen when a court determines that it is absolutely bound by a rigid reading of statutory language, a Missouri appellate court recently held that under the surviving-dependent-becomes-employee-by-definition theory adopted in Schoemehl...
Here’s the second batch of advanced postings for the October 2013 issue of Cal. Comp. Cases. Lexis.com and Lexis Advance subscribers can link to the case to read the complete headnotes and summaries. © Copyright 2013 LexisNexis. All rights reserved...
It’s always tragic when a work injury results in the death of an injured worker. But such a loss is made even more poignant when the worker leaves behind a family with small children. With the paycheck from the deceased injured worker now gone, the primary...
By Robert G. Rassp, Esq. © Copyright 2013 LexisNexis. All rights reserved. Excerpts of this article will appear in a future edition of Rassp & Herlick, California Workers' Compensation Law . Attention Lexis Online Subscribers: The cites in...