New York Case Illustrates That Correlation Between Years of Heavy Work and...
A New York decision reported yesterday, Satalino v. Dan’s Supreme Supermarket, 2012 NY Slip Op 86, 2012 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 63 (Jan. 5, 2012), illustrates the important distinction between correlation...
View ArticlePennsylvania Nurse Due Partial Benefits Because of Allergy to Hospital Floor Wax
Where a registered nurse suffered multiple allergic attacks caused by exposure to a chemical component of a floor wax product used by the hospital employing her, she was entitled to ongoing partial...
View ArticleNew York: Long-Term Exposure to Cold Found Insufficient to Support...
A state park grounds-keeper, who worked outside—often in cold conditions—for more than 35 years, and who developed a diabetic ulceration with a secondary formation of osteomyelitis—an infection in a...
View ArticleWashington High Court Says Valley Fever is Not Covered by Firefighters’...
Valley fever is not a “respiratory disease” for purposes of the state of Washington’s firefighters presumption [Wash. Rev. Code § 51.21.185(1)]; it is instead an “infectious disease” and is not listed...
View ArticleWidow of Illinois Mesothelioma Victim Finds Herself with Catch–22
The widow of a worker who was diagnosed with mesothelioma some 40 years after his exposure to asbestos may not sue the former employer to recover damages since her exclusive remedy was within the...
View ArticleOregon Court Reiterates that “Susceptible to” Does Not Equate with...
Court Nevertheless Reverses and Remands Board’s Decision That Had Awarded Benefits The Court of Appeals of Oregon recently reiterated that a mere susceptibility or predisposition that does not...
View ArticleNY Claimant Establishes Aspergillosis Claim as an Accidental Injury
Court’s Ruling of No Occupational Disease Does Not Bar Claim (After Remittal) for Accidental Injury Where a New York appellate court reversed the state Workers’ Compensation Board’s finding that a...
View ArticleMaryland Widow’s Death Benefits Claim Not Barred by Husband’s Broad Release...
A worker’s claim for workers’ compensation benefits and a dependent’s claim for death benefits are separate and independent claims, such that the dependent’s claim is not derivate of the worker’s, held...
View ArticleMaryland First Responder’s Degenerative Knee Condition is Occupational “Disease”
In a divided decision, the Court of Appeals of Maryland yesterday held that since there was no showing that a first responder had a concomitant preexisting condition, and since he had engaged in...
View ArticleWashington Claimant May Not Recover for PTSD as an Occupational Disease
A Washington appellate court affirmed a finding by the state’s Department of Labor and Industries (”the Department”) that an employee could not prevail in her occupational disease claim for...
View ArticleMissouri Claimants Not Entitled to Statutory “Enhanced Benefit” for Worker’s...
In Missouri, where employers have elected to accept mesothelioma liability pursuant to a special provision of the state Act — Mo. Rev. Stat. § 287.200.4(3)(a)(2013) — the employer becomes liable for an...
View ArticleFor Workers’ Comp World, Coronavirus is a Real “Snake in the Grass”
The world is transfixed by a new enemy: the coronavirus. I just received an email from my bank reminding me how I can use my accounts’ electronic features so as to avoid personal contact. In the last...
View ArticleOpinion Mondays: Recent NY Case May Open Door for Compensability of COVID-19...
It may be a long shot, but a recent New York appellate decision may have opened the door, if ever so slightly, to compensability of COVID-19 claims on the basis of the state’s definition of...
View ArticleNC Claims Rep's Occupational Disease Claim for Anxiety and Depression Fails
A North Carolina appellate court affirmed a decision by the state’s Industrial Commission that denied an employee’s claim for an alleged occupational disease due to excessive stress and other pressures...
View ArticleNY Court Remands Case Where Occupational Disease Disablement Date Was Close...
Where an employee retired in 2014, and was determined to be disabled by an occupational disease in 2016, at which time his employer had no workers’ compensation policy in effect–and might possibly have...
View ArticleDelaware Board Must Decide if COVID-Related Claim is Compensable
The Superior Court of Delaware (New Castle) held that the issue of whether an employee’s fatal COVID-19 infection was an injury or occupational disease must be determined by the state’s Industrial...
View ArticleUtah High Court Hints that Intentional Tort Exception to Exclusivity Might...
Observing that Utah has recognized the intentional tort exception to exclusivity in cases falling under the state’s Workers’ Compensation Act (WCA), but had not (yet) extended the exception to cases...
View ArticleEx Parte Letter to Treating Physician Sinks NY Truck Driver’s Occupational...
Stressing that it is for the New York Workers’ Compensation Board to weigh the evidence—including the medical evidence—and that the Board’s findings will be upheld if supported by substantial evidence,...
View ArticleNY Board Errs in Setting Disablement Date for Repetitive Stress Injury
A decision by the New York Workers’ Compensation Board that a claimant should have been aware of the work-related nature of his back pain and injury in June 2017, at the time he first sought medical...
View ArticleTo Rebut Idaho’s Cancer Presumption Favoring Firefighters, Employer Must...
The Supreme Court of Idaho, construing Idaho Code § 72-438(14)(b), which generally provides firefighters with a rebuttable presumption that certain listed cancers have a causal connection with the...
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