WI - Employer Wrongfully Refuses to Rehire Injured Truck Driver
12/10/2025 | 0
The Wisconsin Court of Appeals ruled that an employer wrongfully refused to rehire an injured employee who was cleared to return to work.
Bruce Belland Trucking Inc. is a company that harvests, hauls and sells wood. Mark Maney worked for Belland as a loader/truck driver.
Maney injured his knee at work in February 2018 and underwent surgery. Maney was released to return to work without restrictions as of April 18, 2018.
On April 16, 2018, Maney informed Belland that he was cleared to return to work in two days but that he would be out of town for his daughter’s wedding until ...
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A divided federal appellate court upheld an award of black lung benefits to a miner’s widow.
Case: Clinchfield Coal Co. v. Mullins, No. 23-1644, 12/02/2025, published.
Facts: Donald Mullins worked as a coal miner for nearly 28 years before his death in February 2014.
Procedural history: Mullins’ widow filed a claim for survivor’s benefits under the Black Lung Benefits Act.
A district director issued a proposed decision and order awarding benefits payable by Clinchfield Coal Co.
An administrative law judge found that the widow was not entitled to the act’s rebuttabl...
A New York appellate court upheld the summary dismissal of claims by a worker who said he was injured while working aboard a navigable vessel.
Case: Badloo v. City of New York, No. 2025-01110, 11/26/2025, published.
Facts: Deoraj Badloo allegedly suffered injuries while performing electrical maintenance work on a vessel owned by the City of New York.
HNY Ferry LLC operated the vessel and was Badloo’s employer.
Procedural history: Badloo filed a suit against the city, HNY and Hornblower Group Inc., HNY’s corporate parent. He asserted claims for...
The West Virginia Supreme Court upheld the denial of a worker's request to expand her claim.
Case: Walker v. Goodwill Industries of Kanawha Valley Inc., No. 25-503, 11/25/2025, published.
Facts: Karen Walker worked for Goodwill Industries of Kanawha Valley Inc. She tripped over a clothing rack at work and injured her knee in July 2020.
A claims administrator for Goodwill’s insurance carrier accepted liability for a left knee contusion.
Walker saw Dr. David Felder twice in August 2020. Felder diagnosed a contusion of the left anterior thigh and a strain of the left tibialis anteri...
San Diego, California - 11/14/2025 - Dietz, Gilmor & Chazen, APC, a California statewide law firm practicing exclusively in workers' compensation defense, subrogation, asbestos, Labor Code §132a, and serious and willful misconduct claims, promotes Peter M. Golden, Esq. to Partner.
Mr. Golden is a Partner based out of the San Diego office of Die...
In the latest example of how indefensibly corrupt California’s workers’ compensation system has become, a former San Francisco city official pleaded guilty to embezzling $627,118 from municipal coffers by paying a fake company to “audit” workers’ comp claims.
Stanley Ellicott helped manage finances and technology for the San Francisco Department of Human Resources Workers’ Compensation Division.
In his role as a DHR official, Ellicott paid Independent Auditors Group to audit workers’ compensation claims. Ho...
The Los Angeles County Superior Court erred when it found that California's insurance commissioner could require an insurer of last resort to offer incidental workers' compensation as part of its basic property insurance, an appeals court ruled.
In 2021, Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara issued an order directing the California FAIR Plan Association to include premises liability and incidental workers' compensation coverage in homeowners' policies.
The association petitioned the Los Angeles County Superior Court for a writ of mandate, arguing that the order improperly excee...
A Washington state lawmaker introduced legislation that would explicitly prohibit employers from steering injured workers to a specific provider by making such conduct a violation of good faith claims-handling laws.
Injured workers in Washington are allowed to choose any provider from the network administered by the Department of Labor and Industries, or from their employer's network if they work for a self-insured business.
SB 5847, introduced Monday by Sen. Rebecca Saldana, D-Seattle, would require employers to notify injured workers of their right to pick a treating provider and expre...
A companion measure to a proposal to explicitly provide workers' compensation coverage for volunteer firefighters and paramedics injured during fundraising events was introduced in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.
Rep. Robert Freeman, D-Easton, on Monday introduced HB 2087, which would declare that volunteer firefighters and paramedics are considered "employees" when they're engaged in fundraising activities.
The bill appears to be an identical companion measure to SB 1053, which Sen. Scott Hutchinson, R-Oil City, introduced in October.
Hutchinson said in a s...
The International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions opened registration for its 2026 Forum, set for April 20-22 in Greenville, South Carolina.
The annual event features roundtable discussions and educational presentations while also providing an opportunity for IAIABC committees and councils to discuss policy and administrative issues.
The event encourages discussion and collaboration and provides an opportunity for workers’ compensation peers to share insights and information, and generate ideas and strategies, IAIABC said.
Early bird registration is $790 for ...
Jopari Solutions on Tuesday announced a partnership with J.P. Morgan to facilitate electronic claim payments across the health care and property and casualty industries.
The initiative aims to simplify how payments are issued and received by adding infrastructure from J.P. Morgan's business and health care payment units to Jopari's new payment platform, the company said.
Jopari also said the collaboration leverages J.P. Morgan's account and entity validations services to enhance payment accuracy and improve security.
The company said its electronic processing system will allow p...
The Workers' Compensation Appeals Board had a duty to develop the record and ensure that qualified medical evaluators received witness statements regarding a worker before denying a petition for reconsideration, a California appellate court ruled.
Because a workers' compensation judge said the employer's testimony about what Teofilo Aparicio was doing before he suffered a stroke was unclear, and the QME had not received witness statements that they said were necessary to determine causation, the 2nd District Court of Appeal said the WCAB's decision was not supported by substan...
A New York appellate court ruled that a widow was not required to obtain the consent of an insurance carrier before settling her claim against third-party tortfeasors, but she was not entitled to receive an equitable apportionment of her costs and expenses from the Workers’ Compensation Board.
Case: Matter of Rorapaugh v. New Penn Motor Express LLC, No. CV-24-0230, 11/20/2025, published.
Facts and procedural history: Scott Rorapaugh died in a motor vehicle accident in July 2019 while working for New Penn Motor Express LLC.
His widow filed a claim for workers' compensation benefits...
The Nebraska Court of Appeals upheld a finding that a worker remained temporarily totally disabled and needed additional shoulder surgery.
Case: Duncan v. Infrastructure & Energy Alternatives Inc., No. A-25-226, 11/25/2025, unpublished.
Facts and procedural history: Marty Duncan worked for Infrastructure & Energy Alternatives Inc. In December 2023, the Workers’ Compensation Court found that Duncan sustained a compensable right shoulder injury and that he had been temporarily and totally disabled from Sept. 15, 2020, onward.
The WCC held that, pursuant to the stipulation of the...
The West Virginia Supreme Court upheld the closure and denial of a worker’s request to expand the scope of his claim.
Case: Lester v. West Virginia Division of Highways, No. 25-505, 11/25/2025, published.
Facts: Brian Lester suffered injuries in November 2022 while working for the West Virginia Division of Highways when he was struck by a car. A doctor diagnosed him with a lumbar strain and a right leg contusion.
A claims administrator for the department’s insurance carrier accepted liability for a lumbar strain and a contusion of the right leg.
Before the accident, Lester had ...
A federal appellate court rejected a coal mine operator’s petition for review of an award of black lung benefits to a miner who was not diagnosed with pneumoconiosis until years after he left the company.
Case: ICG Knott County LLC v. OWCP, No. 25-3190, 12/01/2025, unpublished.
Facts: Jamie Hamilton worked for more than 14 years as a coal miner, with his last coal mine employment at ICG Knott County LLC.
After leaving ICG, Hamilton worked for more than a decade as a mine inspector for the Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration.
The administration ...
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed a proposal to create an employer-funded account to pay for workers' compensation fraud investigations and prosecutions, according to the Legislature's website.
The governor on Friday vetoed S7950/A8429, which would have created a nine-member fraud assessment commission to work with the State Workers’ Compensation Board and the Workers’ Compensation Inspector General to raise money for prosecutors.
The bill would have tasked the commission with helping determine the assessment to levy on employers and how to distribute the money to di...
