CA - Deputy's Refusal of Surgery Results in Denial of Duty Disability Retirement
12/31/2025 | 0
The Court of Appeal for the 2nd District of California ruled that an injured deputy sheriff was properly denied a service-connected disability retirement due to his unreasonable refusal to undergo recommended medical treatment.
Alberto Mendoza worked as a deputy sheriff for Ventura County and was assigned to the Todd Road Jail Facility.
On Dec. 30, 2014, Mendoza slipped while going up stairs at the facility. He allegedly experienced back pain after this incident.
Mendoza underwent a magnetic resonance imaging scan of his lumbar spine on May 20, 2015. The results showed degenerative disc dis...
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A New York appellate court revived a worker’s Labor Law claims against the owner of a single-family dwelling.
Case: Sanchez v. 12E63 LLC, No. 2024-00623, 12/10/2025, published.
Facts: Santos Miguel Espinal Sanchez allegedly suffered injuries while performing construction work on premises owned by 12E63 LLC.
Procedural history: Sanchez filed suit against 12E63 LLC, asserting claims for violations of Labor Law Sections 200 and 241(6).
Section 200 codifies the common-law duty to provide a safe workplace.
Section 241(6) imposes nondelegable duties on owners, general contractors and...
The Iowa Court of Appeals ruled that a worker’s failure to petition for judicial review meant a district court lacked jurisdiction to hear her challenges to a denial of alternate medical care.
Case: Towns v. Silver Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation LLC, No. 25-0310, 12/17/2025, published.
Facts and procedural history: Latoyia Towns worked for Silver Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation LLC. After she injured her shoulder at work, Towns was dissatisfied with her employer’s stance on recommendations from her primary care physician, and she filed a petition for alternate medical care. ...
West Virginia’s Intermediate Court of Appeals ruled that neither it nor the Board of Review could grant a worker’s request to accept a late protest to a denial of his claim.
Case: Funna v. West Virginia Department of Human Services, No. 25-ICA-210, 12/04/2025, published.
Facts and procedural history: Abou Funna worked for the West Virginia Department of Human Services. In January 2024, an administrator for the department’s insurance carrier denied a claim Funna filed with a date of injury in December 2023.
The Board of Review received Funna’s protest to the order on ...
An Ohio appellate court upheld a trial judge’s determination that an injured worker should have been allowed to expand the scope of her claim.
Rhonda Schmidt worked for Lincoln Electric Co. She filed a workers’ compensation claim in 2016, seeking benefits for a respiratory illness allegedly caused by her exposure to chemicals at work.
The Bureau of Workers’ Compensation allowed the claim for occupational asthma, sinusitis and chemical sensitivity.
In 2023, Schmidt moved for additional allowances of spinal stenosis in the cervical spine, osteoporosis of the cervic...
A Louisiana appellate court ruled that res judicata did not bar a worker’s claim against his alleged employer, whether as an individual or as a person running a business.
Case: Crowley v. Rojas, No. 56,647-WCA, 12/17/2025, published.
Facts and procedural history: Raymond Crowley filed a workers’ compensation claim, asserting that he was injured while working for Cesar Rojas, who did business as Rojas Paint.
Crowley claimed that he broke his ankle in September 2020 while cutting a tree on Rojas’ property.
Rojas denied employing Crowley at the time of the alleged ...
A New York appellate court upheld a grant of summary judgment dismissing a worker’s Labor Law claim for his alleged injuries from a fall from a ladder.
Case: Cerro v. 97 Port Richmond Ave LLC, No. 2023-09961, 12/10/2025, published.
Facts: In December 2017, 97 Port Richmond Ave LLC purchased adjacent properties in Staten Island. Port hired Justino Landscaping Inc. to remove a tree next to a garage on one of the properties.
Jose Cerro worked for Justino. He allegedly suffered injuries when he fell from a ladder while cutting the tree’s branches.
Procedural history: Cerro filed su...
West Virginia’s Intermediate Court of Appeals upheld an award of benefits for a nurse who injured her ankle as she hurried to a rapid response call across an uneven floor.
Case: Logan General Hospital LLC v. Bryant, No. 25-ICA-151, 12/04/2025, published.
Facts: Ashley Bryant worked for Logan General Hospital LLC as a nurse. She allegedly injured her ankle while answering a “rapid response” call in September 2024.
According to Bryant, she was “hastily” moving through a sloped, “unlevel” tiled floor area to get to the patient in need of the ...
A Texas appellate court ruled that a refinery owner should have been granted summary judgment dismissing a worker’s claims over injuries from exposure to toxic fumes.
Although Jake Winters introduced evidence that ExxonMobil Corp. knew about the potential risk of a flash fire inside a vessel used to process petroleum naphtha, he failed to demonstrate that the company believed he would suffer specific injuries, which is required to invoke the intentional tort exemption to exclusive remedy.
Winters, a Texas resident, worked for Brown & Root Industrial Services. He allegedly suffered ...
A divided Alabama Supreme Court denied a petition for review of a trial judge’s decision allowing a worker to proceed with civil claims against his co-workers for allegedly removing safety devices from a machine that resulted in the mangling of his hand.
Case: In re Jackson v. Griffin, No. SC-2025-0443, 12/19/2025, published.
Facts: Gary Jackson worked for Alabama Metal Industries Corp. He suffered serious injuries, including the loss of three fingers, when his hand was caught in a leveler machine in September 2021.
AMICO purchased the leveler in the late 1990s. It then adde...
A divided New York Court of Appeals ruled that a subcontractor on a construction project was not obligated to indemnify a general contractor for injuries that a different subcontractor’s employee suffered while using the first subcontractor’s broken ladder without permission.
Case: Dibrino v. Rockefeller Center North Inc., No. 103, 12/28/2025, published.
Facts: Dominick Dibrino worked as a carpenter for Jacobson & Co. Inc. In June 2019, Dibrino was working on a renovation of office space for Major League Baseball's headquarters.
JRM Construction Management LLC ...
The Louisiana Supreme Court ruled that an employer abandoned its statute of limitations defense and tacitly renounced prescription by initiating regular and consistent workers’ compensation payments after the prescriptive period expired.
Case: Johnson v. AECOM Amentum Government Services, No. 2025-CC-00171, 12/18/2025, published.
Facts: Lealon Johnson worked as a mechanic for AECOM Amentum Government Services. He suffered injuries at work on June 12, 2020, when he tripped over the hose of a pressure washer.
Johnson did not initially lose any time from work, as Amentum placed him on a ...
The Mountain States Policy Center, which describes itself as promoting free enterprise, individual liberty and limited government, argues that eliminating Wyoming's monopolistic workers' compensation system would lower rates.
Wyoming, Washington, North Dakota and Ohio are the four monopolistic states in which businesses buy coverage from a state-run fund instead of private carriers.
"North Dakota and Ohio have managed to keep their rates low," writes Marta Mossberg, a research fellow for the Mountain States Policy Center. "But Wyoming's socialist approach has...
The Tennessee Supreme Court, in reversing lower court decisions dismissing a sales representative's negligence action, created an initial test to assess the nature of a vendor agreement before delving into whether a vendor can be considered a statutory employer.
To determine whether Section 50-6-113 applies, the high court formally adopted the predominant purpose test for business relationships involving goods and services, with the warning that the written contract doesn't necessarily dictate the outcome. Courts must assess whether services rendered are incidental to the sale of good...
