MS - Court Upholds Finding of Worker's Total Occupational Loss
08/03/2026 | 0
The Mississippi Court of Appeals upheld a finding that a worker suffered a total occupational loss and was entitled to permanent total disability benefits.
Christy Moore began working on a production line for Ajinomoto Foods North America in September 2018.
After Moore was assigned to a position packing flash-frozen burritos into boxes, she began experiencing pain in her hands. She reported it to a supervisor, who agreed to move Moore to a different position until she could see a doctor.
Moore went to Dr. Theresa Pickle, who cleared her to return to work.
Moore stopped working on Sept
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The Wisconsin Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of the civil claims against an employer for a fatal explosion as barred by workers’ compensation exclusivity.
Case: Dodge v. Didion Milling Inc., No. 2025AP3, 07/30/2026, unpublished.
Facts: On May 29, 2017, a fire occurred in a corn milling facility owned and operated by Didion Milling Inc. That night, after the fire had been put out, production at the mill was resumed.
Two days later, another fire started inside the mill, this time resulting in an explosion that resulted in the deaths of five Didion employees and injurie
The West Virginia Supreme Court ruled that an injured firefighter’s claim for benefits should not have been closed before he had fully recovered from the conditions that were newly added to his case.
Case: City of Wheeling v. Gilbert, No. 26-77, 07/30/2026, published.
Facts: David Gilbert was a firefighter for the City of Wheeling. He filed a workers’ compensation claim, asserting that he had injured his wrist in December 2023.
Gilbert said he was getting into an ambulance when he slipped and fell with his right hand outstretched.
Gilbert was diagnosed with a wrist sprain, and
A New York appellate court has upheld the denial of accidental disability retirement benefits to a Middletown fire inspector who claimed he was permanently disabled after a 2010 vehicle crash.
The court agreed that Adam McCarey failed to establish that the crash occurred while he was doing his ordinary duties as a fire inspector/firefighter.
McCarey was injured on Sept. 23, 2010, as he was driving his city-issued vehicle from one inspection site to another. He had stopped behind a school bus with its lights on when he was rear-ended by a truck.
The accident happened about an hour befor
At a meeting of California’s Commission on Health and Safety and Workers’ Compensation, a payer and network advocate argued that the state’s chaotic medical provider network system is a sterling success, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
The American Association of Payers, Administrators and Networks claimed that a general provider shortage, not a broken system riddled with pitfalls for providers, is the reason injured workers struggle to find doctors willing to treat them.
AAPAN shared findings from its white paper&n
The Classification and Rating Committee for the Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California will meet to discuss classification changes and audit program updates.
Committee members will discuss revisions to classification codes for retail and wholesale computer stores.
The WCIRB is considering amending Classification 8062, which applies to employers that operate stores that sell computers and computer accessories, to remove outside salespeople.
Additionally, the committee will discuss adding wholesale cellular telephone stores that are assigned to 8018 to 8062 and
Federal lawmakers are proposing to revise the definition of fire protection activities that qualify firefighters for the presumption that cancer arose from employment.
HR 10001, introduced Thursday, would explicitly add fuels specialists, burn bosses and prescribed fire crew members to the statutory definition of employees performing fire protection activities. The list currently includes wildland firefighters, paramedics and rescue workers.
The bill would also clarify that the presumption applies to those trained and engaged in prescribed burns as well as fire suppression. It would exp
The Texas Division of Workers' Compensation is accepting comments on a proposal to update the version of the American Medical Association's Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment starting in 2028.
Current rules require doctors to assign an impairment rating when injured workers reach maximum medical improvement using the 4th edition of the AMA guides, which was last updated in 2000.
The division is proposing to require, starting Jan. 1, 2028, that impairment ratings be calculated using the 6th edition of the AMA guides.
The DWC said the change is necessary to ensure the us
The Industrial Commission of Arizona is soliciting feedback from system users about creating a panel to hear appeals.
The commission is considering three possible approaches to what it is calling the potential ICA Appeal Board:
Create a board with at least four ICA appeal judges and assign a three-member panel to hear all requests for review.
Create a board with at least four appeal judges that would default to a three-member panel but allow parties to stipulate to having reviews assigned to a single judge.
Create a board with three judges, with a single judge hearing appeals.
The ICA
The Tennessee Court of Appeals overturned a grant of summary judgment in favor of a carrier in a premium dispute involving an assigned risk workers’ compensation insurance policy.
Gilley Construction Inc. is a Tennessee corporation that installed steel reinforcement for bridges as a subcontractor during the reconstruction of Interstate 59/20 through downtown Birmingham, Alabama.
Under Tennessee law, Gilley was required to maintain workers’ compensation insurance for its employees or meet the statutory requirements for self-insurance.
Gilley purchased two workers’ compensat
A California appellate court upheld the suspension of a State Compensation Insurance Fund attorney from her position due to her repeated failure of internal cybersecurity tests.
Case: Bedrossian v. California State Personnel Board (State Compensation Insurance Fund), No. B349445, 07/28/2026, unpublished.
Facts: Sylvia Bedrossian worked as a staff attorney for State Compensation Insurance Fund, litigating workers’ compensation cases. Her position required that she work with confidential and sensitive information.
SCIF requires that all employees take cybersecurity awareness and privacy
The Washington Court of Appeals upheld the denial of a worker’s claim as untimely.
Case: Kelifa v. Department of Labor & Industries, No. 89233-9-I, 07/20/2026, unpublished.
Facts: Samrawit Kelifa worked for Blanton Turner, a property-management company that manages on-campus student housing at Shoreline Community College.
Kelifa was pregnant when she started the job in May 2022.
In August 2022, Kelifa alleged that she experienced a sharp pain in her back after lifting two mail bins weighing 20 to 30 pounds, but she did not file a workers’ compensation claim at the time.
In
The West Virginia Supreme Court upheld a determination that a coal miner was entitled to benefits for a knee injury.
Case: ACNR Resources Inc. v. Asturi, No. 26-180, 07/30/2026, published.
Facts: Joseph Asturi worked for ACNR Resources Inc. as an underground coal miner. He allegedly twisted his knee when he stepped into a hole at work in July 2024.
Asturi claimed that he aggravated the knee injury in September 2024 when he tripped over a screen.
Before these incidents, Asturi suffered a medial meniscal tear in his left knee. He underwent surgery in August 2018 and returned to work two mont
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is once again asking the board of directors for the Bureau of Workers' Compensation to approve a $1 billion dividend.
If adopted, the dividend would bring to $10.2 billion the total amount the BWC paid to policyholders since DeWine took office in 2018.
"The total dividend payments would exceed the premiums employers have paid since 2019, meaning the typical employer will have received more back in workers’ compensation dividends than they have paid in premiums during Gov. DeWine’s two terms in office," the governor's office said in a s
The Assembly Appropriations Committee is scheduled to hear a bill Wednesday that would require carriers to report data related to possible premium fraud to the California Employment Development Department.
SB 536, by Sen. Bob Archuletta, D-Pico Rivera, would authorize insurers to submit employers' wage records and employee-count information to EDD.
The department would be required to identify and report any discrepancies to the carrier and, upon request, provide carriers with detailed payroll information.
The Assembly Appropriations Committee is scheduled to hear the bill during a heari
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration proposed nearly $800,000 in penalties following an investigation into the release of a deadly gas at a Maine wood pulp mill that exposed workers to safety and health hazards that resulted in deaths.
Kasie Malcolm, 20, and Allen Hornberger, 26, died Jan. 27 while working at the Woodland Pulp mill in Baileyville, according to a report by WABI.
OSHA said Malcolm, Hornberger and others were performing a cold weather shutdown at the facility, resulting in exposure to high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide gas. Hydrogen sulfide is a colorless