CA - Privette Protects Homeowner When Insurer Hires Contractor
12/04/2025 | 0
A California appeals court on Wednesday held that the Privette doctrine extends to a homeowner whose insurance company hired an independent contractor who was injured while inspecting a house for potential hazards.
Although Kathleen Wagner didn't directly hire Robert Andrews, the presumption that a person hiring an independent contractor has delegated control over all aspects of the work, including workplace safety, nonetheless applies because her insurer had effectively hired the inspector on her behalf, the 6th District Court of Appeal said.
"By paying her insurance carrier for in...
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A New York appellate court ruled that there is no statutory prohibition on a prior attorney being granted counsel fees.
Case: Matter of Pandolfi v. Plainedge Union Free School District, No. CV-24-1068, 11/20/2025, published.
Facts: Lynn Pandolfi worked for the Plainedge Union Free School District. She suffered injuries at work in October 2017 and hired an attorney to represent her on her workers’ compensation claim.
Soon after, Pandolfi began expressing dissatisfaction with counsel's representation and disagreement with the legal strategy in several letters to the Workers' Com...
An Arizona appellate court upheld the denial of a worker’s claim of a psychological injury from mistreatment by her supervisor.
Case: Bottorff-Dragomir v. Industrial Commission, No. 1 CA-IC 25-0001, 11/24/2025, unpublished.
Facts: Tanya Bottorff-Dragomir worked for American Express as a commercial loss mitigation specialist. She worked mainly from home, and most of her work interactions were through email, text or video conference.
In August 2022, Bottorff-Dragomir filed a report of workplace injury. She claimed she suffered a work-related mental injury based on repeated psy...
Editor's note: In keeping with privacy considerations, WorkCompCentral does not name alleged victims of sexual assault or other sensitive criminal matters.
The Missouri Court of Appeals ruled that an employer could not compel arbitration of a former employee’s claim that she had been sexually assaulted at work.
Facts: St. Anthony’s Senior Living is a community owned by St. Anthony’s LLC and managed by Guest Services Inc.
The plaintiff worked as the executive director of St. Anthony’s Senior Living from June 2020 until January 2022.
When the plaintiff firs...
The Special Investigative Unit of RJN Investigations, Inc. was recently notified of a felony arrest based upon a documented fraud referral. In this case, the claimant was employed as a caretaker of the California Department of Social Services - I.H.S.S. At the time of the claimant's deposition, he appeared wearing a back support and ambulating with the aid of a cane. Proactively,...
On Oct. 13, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 487 into law, and it takes effect Jan. 1.
The new law makes sweeping changes to California’s workers’ compensation subrogation framework in cases involving peace officers and firefighters. SB 487 limits an employer’s or insurer’s right to reimbursement, lien recovery and subrogation to no more than one-third of a third-party defendant’s liability insurance limits in certain circumstances, and prohibits any future credit or offset against continuing workers’ compensation benefits....
The West Virginia Supreme Court upheld an award of 0% permanent partial disability for a worker’s occupational pneumoconiosis.
Case: Foster v. Kingston Mining Inc., No. 24-783, 11/25/2025, published.
Facts: Nelson Foster underwent pulmonary function testing in May 2021. The treating doctor reported that there were no classifiable parenchymal abnormalities and no pleural abnormalities.
The doctor also indicated that there was a coalescence of small opacities, bullae and emphysema. He said there was no evidence of pneumoconiosis opacities in the lung fields.
In August 2021, anothe...
A California appeals court vacated a summary judgment awarding a workers' compensation carrier nearly $58,000 because a statement of damages was not served before the entry of defaults, and the award exceeded the relief demanded in the complaint.
The 4th District Court of Appeal also set aside an order striking the answer to the complaint that the trial court entered as a sanction after counsel for the defendants missed multiple status conferences. The court said it would be meaningless to remand the case for further proceedings after vacating summary judgment without also reinstating the...
A New York contractor paid $625,000 in restitution after pleading guilty to underreporting his payroll by more than $3.5 million.
Mahendranauth Khargie, 36, and his company, GC Stud Inc., were sentenced Monday to a conditional discharge after satisfying the restitution order.
Khargie and his company pleaded guilty in October to a felony count of insurance fraud, and the company also pleaded guilty to failing to carry workers' compensation coverage.
Nassau County prosecutors said audits by the New York State Insurance Fund revealed that Khargie underreported payroll by more than $3.5 mil...
The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services announced that Director Sean O'Day appointed TK Keen as insurance commissioner.
Keen has been serving in an acting commissioner capacity since June. He was deputy insurance commissioner for five years before that and is also the administrator of the Oregon Division of Financial Regulation.
Before he joined the division in 2012, Keen was a sole practitioner in Washington, focusing on employment law cases.
During law school at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, he worked for the Oregon Department of Justice, the Hon. Eliz...
A New York appellate court ruled that the state Workers’ Compensation Board erred in excluding a doctor’s report from evidence.
Gary Troiano suffered a wrist injury while working for the New York City Housing Authority, a self-insured employer.
In March 2023, Dr. Vasilios Kountis opined that Troiano had a 42.5% schedule loss of use of the wrist.
A workers’ compensation law judge accepted this rating.
The Housing Authority sought administrative review, arguing for the first time that Kountis should have been considered an independent medical examiner and, because...
The West Virginia Supreme Court upheld the denial of a worker’s request for a walk-in whirlpool tub and shower, and the replacement of the floorboards on his porch, as not medically necessary for his burn injuries.
Case: Carey v. AAA Paving & Sealing Inc., No. 25-502, 11/25/2025, published.
Facts: Douglass Carey worked for AAA Paving and Sealing Inc.
Carey suffered injuries at work in May 2023 when a dump truck hit a power line, knocking the transformer and high voltage line onto the paver that Carey was operating. The incident caused second- and third-degree burns over approximat...
The Delaware Superior Court upheld a determination that a worker made a sufficiently reasonable effort to locate suitable employment within her restrictions to qualify as “displaced.”
Case: Amazon.com Services LLC v. Carr, No. N25A-03-008SSA, 11/24/2025, unpublished.
Facts: Frances Carr worked for Amazon.com Services LLC. She injured her back at work in September 2023.
Two doctors opined that Carr was capable of working in a sedentary capacity, but she was not sure Amazon would accommodate her limitations.
She began searching for a new job once she was cleared to return to work...
A Texas appellate court reinstated a worker’s challenge to an administrative determination regarding the scope of her compensable injuries, finding that a trial judge erred in treating her petition as untimely.
Case: Galvan v. Hyatt Regency San Antonio, No. 04-24-00829-CV, 11/26/2025, published.
Facts and procedural history: Maria Veronica Galvan worked for the Hyatt Regency San Antonio. She suffered injuries at work in August 2020.
Hyatt accepted liability for Galvan’s left shoulder strain and lumbar strain but contested liability for her other alleged conditions.
An admi...
Members of the California Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation are meeting Dec. 11 in Los Angeles.
Commissioners will hear a long-awaited report on carriers using prepaid benefit cards.
The Legislature in 2018 passed a bill creating what was supposed to be a five-year pilot project and asked CHSWC to complete its assessment by December 2022.
Lawmakers extended the length of the pilot in 2022 and again in 2023 to allow more time for CHSWC's evaluation. The bills did not extend the deadline for the study.
Meanwhile, CHSWC said in its 2023 annual report that...
Gov. Greg Abbott reappointed Brett Flagg to the Texas Mutual Insurance Co. board of directors for a term running through July 1, 2031.
Flagg, who was first appointed by Abbott in 2019, has been a practicing attorney in Texas for more than 35 years. He is the owner of Flagg Law Group, where he focuses on estate planning, asset protection, probate and general business counsel for high net-worth entrepreneurs.
He earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from Baylor University, the same school where he earned his law degree. He also earned a master's in tax law&nbs...
The Alaska Division of Insurance approved a 3.7% average decrease in voluntary loss costs and an average 4.8% reduction in assigned risk rates, effective Jan. 1.
The National Council on Compensation Insurance said its recommendations for 2026 loss costs and assigned risk rates show improvement relative to the data underlying recommendations for 2025.
"Alaska's lost-time claims frequency has generally declined over the last 15 years, with another decline observed in the latest year, 2023," NCCI said in a summary of the filing. "The average cost per lost-time claim has also ...
