NY - Court: Medical Resident's Wounds From Mass Shooting at Hospital Compensable
05/17/2024 | 0
New York’s highest court unanimously ruled that when an employee is injured in an attack at work, his injuries are presumed to be compensable and that the lack of evidence as to the motivation for the assault does not rebut the presumption.
On June 30, 2017, Dr. Henry Bello entered the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital wearing a doctor's white medical coat, under which he hid a loaded AR-15 rifle, ammunition magazines and a juice container filled with gasoline.
Bello was a physician at the hospital until his resignation in February 2015 following an allegation that he had ...
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The New Jersey Superior Court’s Appellate Division ruled that a worker was entitled to benefits for his injuries from falling while taking a dip in a hotel pool.
Case: Terhune v. Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, No. A-3206-22, 05/08/2024, unpublished.
Facts: Albert Terhune Jr. worked for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. On Dec. 14, 2013, Terhune reported for mandatory snow duty at 7 a.m. As part of snow duty, he had to stay at an assigned hotel for 12 hours and then work 12 hours. He was to be compensated for a 24-hour shift.
Terhune went to the hotel, had...
A federal appellate court upheld a finding that a worker’s coal mine employment caused his pneumoconiosis.
Case: Lance Coal Corp. v. OWCP, No. 23-3779, 05/09/2024, unpublished.
Facts: Virgil Combs worked for Lance Coal Corp. for six years as a member of a powder crew. His job involved detonating explosives to blast open rock layers.
Procedural history: Combs filed a claim under the Black Lung Benefits Act, but an administrative law judge denied it, finding pneumoconiosis didn’t cause Combs’ total disability.
Combs filed a request for modification of the denial but di...
The Kansas Court of Appeals ruled that an injured truck driver’s award for a knee injury was not subject to offset due to prior leg injuries.
Case: Cregger v CLW Farms Inc., No. 126,486, 05/10/2024, unpublished.
Facts: Donald Cregger worked for CWL Farms Inc. as a truck driver. He slipped and fell while working in March 2020, breaking his tibial plateau near the left knee.
Cregger underwent surgery on the knee in July 2020. When he was released to return to work in September, he was informed that CLW sold the truck and trailer he operated and that the employer no longer...
Workers comp is:
A) hugely profitable.
B) way over-priced.
C) even more profitable than it looks.
D) by far the most profitable P&C insurance line.
E) not suffering from medical cost increases.
F) a highly mature industry with all the attributes thereof.
G) shrinking as claim frequency continues the 20-year trend averaging -3.4%.
H) the financial savior of multi-line carriers.
I) all of the above.
The answer is all of the above.
NCCI’s Annual Issues Symposium provided a deep dive into the industry’s financials, and the industry is ...
IL - Companies Cited for Asbestos Hazards in Hospital Demolition
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Wednesday that it cited a Chicago demolition subcontractor for 36 safety and health violations after federal investigators determined it exposed workers to asbestos hazards in November 2023.
OSHA cited K.L.F. Enterprises for willful and other violations after inspectors discovered that the company had a building survey showing a hospital that its employees were demolishing contained asbestos for fireproofing but that K.L.F. failed to inform workers about the dangers.
The agency issued the company $392,002 in penalties.
OSHA sa...
The Oregon Workers’ Compensation Division announced that maximum temporary total disability benefits and attorney fees are increasing on July 1 along with the threshold used to determine whether employment is casual.
The division said in Bulletin No. 111 that the max TTD benefit is increasing to $1,770.87 from $1,723.49 for workers injured on or after July 1.
Maximum temporary disability benefits are equal to 133% of the state’s average weekly wage, which increased 2.749% to $1,331.48 from $1,295.86.
The cap on attorney fees is also adjusted annually based on changes in the stat...
The Texas Division of Workers’ Compensation is hosting a webinar on May 22 to discuss presiding officer directives.
The division said the program will focus on the origin of presiding officer directives as a tool to obtain certifications for maximum medical improvement and impairment ratings.
The webinar will explore the difference between officer directives and letters of clarification, procedural stems for issuing a directive, and real-world examples of how directives were used in workers’ compensation cases.
The program is intended for system users including adjusters, attorn...
The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that if a worker is injured as a passenger in an employer-owned vehicle, and workers’ compensation exclusivity precludes a recovery under the automobile liability policy, the vehicle qualifies as uninsured.
On March 24, 2020, Michael Brian Smith was killed in a single-car accident as a passenger in a company vehicle owned by the Fixtures & Drywall Co. of Oklahoma. Smith’s co-worker, Duane Clark, was driving.
FADCO maintained two policies with Federated Mutal Insurance Co. One provided coverage for all sums FADCO “must pay as damages...
The New Mexico Court of Appeals overturned the denial of a hotel housekeeper’s claim for a knee injury.
Case: Moorhead v. Hyatt Regency Tamaya, No. A-1-CA-40191, 05/07/2024, unpublished.
Facts: Irene Moorhead worked as a housekeeper for the Hyatt Regency Tamaya. She had osteoarthritis and suffered a medial meniscus tear before her alleged work accident.
According to Moorhead, she had pain in her left knee on Nov. 15, 2019, and she took Advil. While running errands after work, she claimed that the pain in her knee was so severe that she was unable to get out of her vehicle.
Moorhead e...
The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania rejected an injured police officer’s constitutional challenges to the state’s new impairment rating evaluation scheme.
Case: Powell v. City of Philadelphia (WCAB), No. 406 C.D. 2023, 05/07/2024, unpublished.
Facts: Lawrence Powell was a police officer for the City of Philadelphia. He suffered injuries in a motor vehicle accident in September 2013 and began collecting temporary total disability benefits.
In March 2021, Powell underwent an impairment rating evaluation by Dr. Lynn Yang, who opined that Powell had an 8% impairment, which ...
A divided Texas appellate court overturned a grant of summary judgment finding that an injured police officer was entitled to uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage under her own policy for an accident in her police cruiser.
Case: Progressive County Mutual Insurance Co. v. Freeman, No. 14-22-00450-CV, 05/14/2024, published.
Facts: Artemiz Freeman was a police officer for the City of Houston. She suffered injuries in February 2018 when her police cruiser was rear-ended by another vehicle.
The at-fault motorist had an insurance policy that provided $50,000 in liability coverage to Fr...
The California Department of Insurance announced that the owner of a Central Valley trucking firm was charged with fraud after the death of a driver revealed he allegedly underreported payroll by more than $2.3 million.
Heigo Kubar was arraigned Wednesday on three felony counts of workers’ compensation fraud, the department said. The 84-year-old former owner of TKJ Trucking is accused of reporting $875,591 in payroll from Dec. 1, 2018, to Dec. 1, 2021. CDI said the company actually had $3.2 million in payroll for that period.
Kubar allegedly shorted insurance carriers more than $480,00...
Two companies were fined a combined $650,000 after a worker died in an apple storage facility that had a low oxygen level to prevent fruit from spoiling, the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries announced.
An employee from Pace International LLC died Oct. 1 in a controlled atmosphere room owned by Stemilt Growers. The department said a Stemilt employee unlocked the room and allowed the worker in but didn’t point out that oxygen levels were low.
The department said its inspectors found oxygen levels ranged from 1.9% to 2.09% in the storage room. Normal oxygen at sea level...
The California Division of Workers’ Compensation said it will evaluate users of its electronic case management system over the next few months and discipline those who continually violate rules and guidelines.
“DWC’s planned corrective actions will include, but are not limited to, suspension or removal of e-filing privileges and/or sanctions aimed at users who disregard regulations, e-filing instructions and document discrepancy notifications,” the agency said. “These corrective actions have become necessary because many users continue to e-file defective ba...
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed bills creating a new venue for legacy claims and covering public safety workers with mental health claims that aren’t accompanied by a physical injury.
Stitt on May 6 enacted SB 1456, by Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, creating the Court of Existing Claims within the Court of Civil Appeals and giving it jurisdiction over all claims with dates of injury before Feb. 1, 2014.
On May 8, Stitt signed SB 1457, also by Treat, exempting public safety workers from the prohibition on what are sometimes called “mental-mental” clai...