OK - High Court Reverses Finding That Public Workers Have 'Property Interest' in Ongoing Employment
10/15/2026 | 0
The Oklahoma Supreme Court rejected the contention that a state civil service law creates a constitutionally protected property interest in continued public employment and held that a lower court erred in finding the statutory framework for termination violated due process.
What's more, the trial court also misapplied the burden of proof and improperly reweighed the evidence when it reversed the decision of the Office of Management and Enterprise Services upholding the termination of Michael J. Turner.
Turner, a power plant maintenance technician for the Grand River Dam Authority, suffer
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The North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled that a worker sufficiently alleged behavior by his supervisor that amounted to an intentional tort, so his civil suit was not barred by exclusivity.
Case: Hembree v. Hendrick Automotive Group LLC, No. COA26-172, 10/07/2026, published.
Facts: Randy Hembree filed a complaint alleging that he was an employee of Hendrick Automotive Group LLC from 2015 until 2025. Hembree claimed that Eric William Wright was his supervisor, and that Wright would physically strike his subordinates “[a]s a form of motivation.”
Hembree alleged that Wright knew h
A New York appellate court ruled that a worker was properly denied leave to amend his bill of particulars and that the defendants failed to timely move for summary judgment as to his claim.
Case: Cambero-Minaya v. 211 Schermerhorn Development, No. 2024-11904, 10/07/2026, published.
Facts: Roberto Cambero-Minaya allegedly was injured while performing construction work on premises owned by 211 Schermerhorn Development LLC. Oestreicher Construction Corp. was the general contractor for the project, and it had hired Cambero-Minaya’s employer, Logozzo Bros. Construction Corp., as a subc
The Maryland Appellate Court turned away a mother’s challenge to the summary dismissal of a civil suit against her son’s employer for an accident that led to his death.
Case: Beeman v. The Shredder Co. LLC, No. 762, 10/07/2026, unpublished.
Facts: Joshua Nickel worked for Allegany Scrap, a metal recycling facility. Allegany Scrap utilized an industrial shredder to destroy materials such as junk cars.
While Nickel was monitoring the shredder, it discharged a piece of shrapnel that struck him above his left ear. Nickel died of his injury the next day.
Procedural history: Nic
A New York appellate court upheld an award of benefits to a carpenter for his injuries from a fall, despite discrepancies in his report of how the accident occurred.
Case: Matter of Castillo Gonzalez v. Expo Concrete LLC, No. CV-25-1060, 10/08/2026, published.
Facts: Bernardo Castillo Gonzalez worked as a carpenter. In April 2023, he informed his employer that he had tripped and fallen while working on a project.
Castillo Gonzalez was sent to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with an orbital wall fracture, subdermal hematoma and left forearm contusion.
According to the treating physicia
AM Best said in a new report that ongoing loss reserve takedowns and enhanced workplace safety measures were key drivers of another strong year of underwriting profits in 2025.
At the same time, the firm said the workers' compensation segment could be approaching an inflection point with combined ratios increasing, reserve redundancy shrinking and premium levels trending down.
Overall, AM Best reports that workers' compensation insurers generated a combined ratio of 93.2% in 2025, which was lower than all the major long-tailed casualty lines.
While workers' compensation results
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited an excavation contractor after a worker was fatally injured in a trench collapse.
OSHA opened an investigation into Jonas David Wagoner, doing business as J.D. Wagoner Excavating, in April and discovered that workers were installing a sewer system in a deep trench that was not adequately protected from collapse. A portion of the trench failed, engulfing the worker.
The agency issued a willful violation for failure to guard against cave-ins, and two repeat violations for failing to conduct daily trench ins
The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development is holding a virtual public hearing as part of its efforts to create a workers' compensation hospital fee schedule.
Part of the budget enacted in July 2025 requires the department to fully implement a hospital fee schedule by July 1, 2027.
The department intends to adopt emergency rules by July to comply with the statutory mandate and operate under the temporary rules until July 1, 2028, or a final rule takes effect, whichever is sooner.
According to the department's statement of scope, the proposed rules will address procedures for
A California appeals court has affirmed the dismissal of a former Gardena police lieutenant’s disability and age discrimination lawsuit.
The city’s retiree health insurance eligibility requirements did not establish unlawful discrimination, and the officer failed to plead facts showing discriminatory or retaliatory intent by the city manager involving a workers' compensation stress claim, the 2nd District Court of Appeal said in Sargent v. City of Gardena, an unpublished decision handed down Monday.
Michael Sargent worked for the city as a police officer from 2002 through Oct
A New York appellate court ruled that a carpenter established that his heart attack was causally related to his exertion from chasing a runaway donkey.
Case: Matter of Mulligan v. Moy Construction Corp., No. CV-25-0231, 10/08/2026, published.
Facts: Gerard Mulligan worked for Moy Construction Corp. as a carpenter. He was asked to work on a shed containing animals at the residence of his employer's owner.
When Mulligan arrived, the owner's spouse, who is the employer’s vice president, asked him to help get a donkey that had gotten loose into the shed.
After they were
The District of Columbia’s highest court ruled that a worker’s temporary total disability benefits should have been suspended once she began collecting retirement benefits from the federal Civil Service Retirement System.
Case: District of Columbia Department of Corrections v. DOES, No. 22-AA-0871, 10/08/2026, published.
Facts: Vera Brummell began working for the District of Columbia Department of Corrections in 1972.
In June 1993, she suffered an emotional breakdown following extended on-the-job harassment and retaliatory treatment. Brummell then began collecting temporary tota
The North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled that exclusivity did not apply to shield a company using a staffing provider’s services from civil liability for injuries sustained by the provider’s employee.
Case: Jefferson v. Johnson Concrete Co., No. COA26-41, 10/07/2026, published.
Facts: Johnson Concrete Co. is a North Carolina-based manufacturer of concrete blocks and pipes. Labor Finders is an employment-staffing company that assigned Robert Jefferson to work for JCC.
The contract between JCC and Labor Finders stated that the Labor Finders workers would be considered Labor Finde
A New York appellate court upheld the summary dismissal of a worker’s Labor Law and negligence claims arising from his alleged fall on construction debris.
Case: Nunez v. 672 Parkside LLC, Nos. 2024-07423 and 2025-01274, 10/07/2026, published.
Facts: Gustavo Nunez allegedly suffered injuries while working at a construction site in March 2018.
According to Nunez, he was tasked with cleaning the first floor of a building. While carrying a cabinet from one end of the floor to the other, he slipped and fell on a sheet of metal covered in construction debris.
Procedural history: Nune
The National Council on Compensation Insurance reported a final workers' compensation combined ratio of 90.6% for calendar year 2025, producing an underwriting gain of 9.4%.
The final pretax operating gain was 18.2%, while the investment gain on insurance transactions was 8.8%. Net written premium for the workers' compensation system totaled $41.6 billion.
NCCI also reported that claim frequency declined 2% in 2025 compared with 2024, while indemnity and medical claim severities each increased 4%.
NCCI said that while it is still early, preliminary analysis through the second quarte
The Ohio Supreme Court ordered an appeals court to dismiss a worker’s challenge to the denial of permanent total disability benefits because the worker died while the case was pending.
The high court rejected the argument that the 10th District Court of Appeals lost jurisdiction over the action when David McCartney died, but it agreed that his death rendered the action moot and that the specific facts of the case require the lower court to vacate its decision.
McCartney was receiving permanent partial disability benefits for a March 2001 injury sustained while working for Simco Managem
