Illinois Case Law Update

Friday, May 8, 2015 | 0

NEW! Steel & Machinery Transportation v. Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission, 13-L-50386, (05/01/2015): A divided Illinois Appellate Court ruled that a truck driver was entitled to benefits after his injuries from a crash necessitated the partial amputation of his leg since he was an employee of the company that had hired him to transport a load from Indiana to Wisconsin.

NEW! Bell v. Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission (Dan Pilson Auto Center), 4-14-0028WC, (05/01/2015): The Illinois Appellate Court ruled that a worker's death does not abate an employer's obligation to pay permanent partial disability benefits that accrued before she died, even though she had no spouse or dependents to receive the payment.

NEW! Loyola University of Chicago v. Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission, 12-L-51120 (05/01/2015): The Appellate Court of Illinois ruled that the terms of an employer's settlement with an injured worker required it to reimburse the insurance carrier that had overpaid the worker long-term disability benefits while her comp claim was pending.

NEW! Bremer v. The City of Rockford, 08-MR-437, (04/27/2015): The Illinois Appellate Court ruled that a firefighter's receipt of an occupational disease disability pension established that he had suffered a "catastrophic injury" for purposes of the Public Safety Employee Benefits Act.

NEW! Kay v. Centegra Health System, 09-LA-433, (04/23/2015): The Illinois Appellate Court ruled that a health care worker could not sue the corporate entity which paid for the comp insurance policy covering the medical center where she worked in tort.

NEW! Illinois State Treasurer v. Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission, 117418, (04/16/2015): The Illinois Supreme Court ruled that the state treasurer, as custodian of the state's Injured Workers' Benefit Fund, is not exempt from a statute that requires parties to post a bond when appealing a decision by the state Workers' Compensation Commission.

Vaughn v. City of Carbondale, 12-MR-172, (03/2015): The 5th District of the Illinois Appellate Court ruled that the City of Carbondale couldn't terminate the health insurance coverage for a police officer who quit working after he banged his head on the door frame of his patrol car.

Metrou v. M.A. Mortenson Co., 14-80-30, (03/23/2015): An injured worker is not barred from prevailing on a third-party liability claim just because he failed to list the claim as a potential asset when he filed for bankruptcy, according to the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

O'Gorman v. F.H. Paschen, 1-13-3472, (03/20/2015): The Appellate Court of Illinois ruled that the general contractor on a municipal construction project was entitled to summary judgment dismissing it from a negligence suit filed by a city employee who was injured at the job site.

Lenhart v. Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission, 12-MR-1596, (03/20/2015): The Appellate Court of Illinois overturned an award of permanent partial disability benefits to a worker, saying the Workers' Compensation Commission should have decided whether a wage-differential award would have been more appropriate than an award based on the percentage of impairment to the body as a whole.

Williams v. BNSF Railway Co., 1-12-1901, (03/18/2015): The Illinois Appellate Court upheld an award of $1,338,480 to an injured railway worker and ruled that the worker's employer wasn't entitled to indemnity from the entity which was responsible for supervising the worker at the time of his injury, since the employer hadn't made a timely demand for indemnification.