TX - Employer Waives Ability to Challenge Arbitrator's Decision on Claims Over Death of Employee
10/16/2026 | 0
A Texas appellate court ruled that an employer waived its ability to challenge an arbitrator’s determination that it could not compel arbitration of the claims by the family of a deceased employee.
Brandon Stroebel worked for Rudtruck Operating LLC. As part of his employment, Stroebel signed a mutual arbitration agreement.
One year later, Stroebel suffered fatal injuries while working at an oil and gas wellsite owned by Maverick Natural Resources LLC.
Stroebel’s heirs sued Rudtuck for gross negligence under the Workers’ Compensation Act and sued Maverick for wrongful death
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The Illinois Appellate Court upheld the denial of a janitor’s repetitive trauma injury claim.
Case: Bowden v. IWCC, No. 1-25-1986WC, 10/09/2026, unpublished.
Facts: Jason Bowden worked as a janitor for Wilbur Wright College. Beginning in March 2020, Bowden allegedly began experiencing back pain.
He sought treatment for back pain from Dr. Gayathri Sundaresan in May 2021. He denied that any specific incident caused the pain.
Sundaresan diagnosed sciatica and prescribed Valium and Motrin. Bowden never filled the Valium prescription.
Bowden returned to see Sundaresan in July 2021. Sunda
A New York appellate court ruled that a Labor Law defendant was properly granted leave to amend its response to a notice to admit and that it was properly granted summary judgment dismissing the complaint.
Case: Laignelet v. City of New York, No. 2025-00278, 10/07/2026, published.
Facts: Jarnells E. Laignelet allegedly fell from a ladder while working inside a building at 79-25 Winchester Boulevard in Queens.
Procedural history: Laignelet filed suit against the City of New York, asserting claims for negligence and violations of the Labor Law.
After the city answered the complaint, Lai
A New York appellate court ruled that an injured worker’s employer was not entitled to summary judgment dismissing the contractual indemnification claims against it.
Case: Robles v. Fordham Valentine Associates LLC, No. 816226/21, 10/08/2026, published.
Facts: Hector Robles worked for Top Notch Finishes Inc. as a carpenter. He suffered injuries while moving drywall boards, which were used in Top Notch's carpentry work, from the first floor of a building to the basement.
Robles was performing this work under the directives of his foreman and in accordance with Top Notch's
A tunnel collapse near Knights Ferry that left one worker dead and another seriously injured resulted in $212,500 in penalties against two companies, according to the state workplace safety agency Cal/OSHA.
Drill Tech Drilling & Shoring Inc. and Provost & Pritchard Engineering Group Inc. were building a 12,000-foot diversion tunnel for the South San Joaquin Irrigation District when it collapsed in April, resulting in fatal injuries to Twyla Capurro, a 35-year-old geologist.
Cal/OSHA determined that both companies failed to adequately support dangerous ground inside the tunnel.
The Virginia Workers' Compensation Commission has sworn in two new deputy commissioners who will serve as administrative law judges and hold evidentiary hearings.
The commission held a swearing-in ceremony on Wednesday for Adam L. Katz and Jason A. Mullins.
Katz will be based in the commission's headquarters in Richmond.
He worked in the state Attorney General's Office, representing Virginia in workers' compensation cases before joining the commission.
Before moving to Virginia, he represented employers and insurers in workers' compensation cases in Georgia.
The Idaho Department of Insurance announced that it has accepted a filing from the National Council on Compensation Insurance that will result in an overall average workers' compensation rate decrease of 0.1%, effective Jan. 1.
"While modest, the reduction continues Idaho’s long-term trend of stable and declining workers’ compensation costs for employers," the department said in a statement.
With the 10th consecutive cut, workers’ compensation rates have declined in 11 of the past 12 years. The latest reduction reflects continued improvements in claims frequen
The Workers Compensation Research Institute has opened registration for its 2027 annual Issues and Research Conference, being held March 11-12 in Boston.
The event will cover WCRI's latest research on topics that include economic conditions and how they impact claims, access to care, mental health coverage, prescription drug payments and other benchmark findings.
Yale Health Economist Zack Cooper is scheduled to deliver the keynote address that will cover the drivers of growth and geographic variation in the general healthcare system, the effect of competition in hospital and insurance m
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
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
