New York Case Law Update

Friday, December 5, 2014 | 0

NEW! Matter of Cohen v. Workers' Compensation Board, 518477, (11/26/2014): A New York appellate court ruled that the state Workers' Compensation Board acted arbitrarily and capriciously in denying a licensed doctor of osteopathy's application to begin providing treatment to injured workers.

NEW! Correa v. Anderson, 518427, (11/20/2014): A New York appellate court ruled that a worker whose foot was crushed by a falling anvil when she opened the trunk of a coworker's personal vehicle was limited to recovering for her injury under the comp system.

NEW! Matter of Dobney, 518594, (11/20/2014): A New York appellate court ruled that a self-insured employer who paid its injured employee wages in excess of the amount she was entitled to collect in workers' compensation benefits could not be reimbursed for the additional money it had paid her.

NEW! Matter of Holden v. DiNapoli, 517220, (11/20/2014): A New York appellate court ruled that a police officer's fall on a drainage grate did not entitle him to accidental disability retirement benefits.

NEW! Nicoletti v. Iracane, 2013-05630, (11/19/2014): A property owner was not liable in tort or under the Labor Law to a worker who fell while walking across her deck, a New York appellate court ruled.

NEW! Farias v. Simon, 13069 113267/08, (11/18/2014): A divided New York appellate court ruled that the owners of a property where a worker fell from a scaffold were immune from liability under Labor Law Section 241, even though they never lived on the property and began renting it out after the accident.

NEW! Bonaguro v. City of New York, 2014-00783, (11/12/2014): A New York appellate court said an injured worker should not have been given permission to file a late claim against the property owner where his accident had occurred.

NEW! Miranda v. NYC Partnership Housing Development Fund Co., 13234 306801/10 83751/11 83807/11, (11/13/2014): A New York appellate court ruled that a worker was entitled to summary judgment on his Labor Law 240(1) claim based on his fall from a ladder that had been placed on a scaffold, but the defense was entitled to summary judgment on his Section 241(6) claim.

NEW! Bonilla v. Country Rotisserie of Riverhead, 518261, (11/13/2014): A comp carrier provided sufficient notice of cancellation of coverage by sending a letter to the chief executive officer of a corporation at her home address, a New York appellate court ruled.

NEW! Strauss Painting v. Mt. Hawley Insurance Co., 203, (11/2014): New York's highest court sorted out a long-running coverage dispute between a commercial general liability carrier and a contractor over whether it had to provide indemnity and a defense against a tort claim by a worker who had fallen from a ladder while working at the famed Metropolitan Opera House at the Lincoln Center Plaza.

NEW! Cunningham v. New York City Transit Authority, 518434, (11/13/2014): An employer whose failure to file a timely notice of controversy to a worker's claim barred it from submitting evidence in a dispute about whether his injury had arisen out of his employment still doesn't owe him benefits because he failed to prove the necessary causal connection, a New York appellate court ruled.

NEW! New York State Workers' Compensation Board v. Bast Hatfield, 517220, (11/20/2014): A New York appellate court ruled that a member of a failed self-insurance trust could not get out of paying a default judgment to the state Workers' Compensation Board for the cost of a claim by one of its employees, even though the Special Disability Fund had already reimbursed the board for it.

NEW! Matter of Kigin v. State of New York Workers' Compensation Board, 181, (11/2014): New York's highest court on Thursday upheld the validity of the pre-authorization procedure for claimants seeking variances from the State Workers' Compensation Board's medical treatment guidelines.

NEW! Matter of Mercurio v. DiNapoli, 518678, (11/13/2014): A New York appellate court ruled that a firefighter who twisted his knee when he stepped into a deep snowbank while alighting from the cab of a fire engine was not entitled to accidental disability retirement benefits.

NEW! Yurko v. DiNaopli, 518635, (11/13/2014): A New York appellate court ruled that a police officer's ankle injury, after she stepped into a pothole she said she had not seen, was not an "accident" for purposes of an award of accidental disability retirement benefits.

NEW! Lewis v. Stewart's Marketing Corp., 518647, (11/13/2014): A New York appellate court said it will not review an interlocutory decision about whether an employer's stipulation to the level of an injured worker's disability should have been accepted by a workers' compensation law judge.

NEW! Hill v. Acies Group, 13437 305287/08, (11/06/2014): A New York appellate court ruled that a construction worker who had been hit by a falling brick was entitled to summary judgment on his Labor Law claim.

NEW! Matter of Noboa v. International Shoppes, 518185, (11/06/2014): An employer who made arrangements to use the company's cargo van to take employees home after a snow storm shut down the airport where they worked must pay workers' compensation benefits to an employee who hurt her back while being jostled in the cargo area of the van during the trip.

NEW! Blanco v. NBC Trust, 13395 113865/10 and 590234/11, (11/06/2014): A New York appellate court revived an injured electrician's Labor Law claim based on his fall from a ladder and ordered that judgment be summarily entered in his favor on this claim.

NEW! Ortiz v. All Lock & Glass Service, 2013-02146, (11/05/2014): A New York appellate court revived a worker's third-party personal injury claims based on his workplace fall, finding triable issues of fact precluded summary judgment as to both defendants.  

NEW! Vinasco v. Intell Times Square Hotel, 2013-01467, (11/05/2014): A New York appellate court overturned a jury's verdict in favor of a hotel on a worker's Labor Law claim, finding there was no rational basis for the jury to have concluded the hotel was not liable for failing to provide the worker with adequate protection from the risk of falling.

NEW! Matter of Gioia v. Cattaraugus County Nursing Home, 517853, (11/06/2014): An injured worker's wage-loss award had to be based on her actual earnings during her period of disability for the time she remained attached to the labor market, a New York appellate court ruled.

NEW! Fulton v. New York State Comptroller, 518444, (11/06/2014): A New York appellate court ruled that a police officer, who responded to a call about a fight and suffered injuries after one of the combatants allegedly attacked him without warning, was not entitled to accidental disability retirement benefits.

NEW! Hoehn v. New York State Comptroller, 518445, (11/06/2014): A police officer's injury from helping a stranded motorist push a disabled vehicle out of a heavily trafficked roadway entitled him to performance of duty retirement benefits, but not accidental disability retirement benefits, a New York appellate court ruled.

NEW! Marston v. General Electric Co., 517694, (10/30/2014): A New York appellate court ruled that an archeologist's widow could proceed with her Jones Act claim based on her late-husband's drowning in the Hudson River.

NEW! Nolan v. Irwin Contracting, 2012-02049, (10/29/2014): A New York appellate court ruled that a general contractor was not entitled to summary judgment dismissing a negligence suit that had been filed against it by one of its subcontractor's employees.

NEW! Ortman v. Logsdon, 517956, (10/23/2014): A New York appellate court ruled that a worker who fell from the rafters of a barn that was under construction was not entitled to summary judgment on his Labor Law claim.

NEW! Rodriguez v. Trades Construction Services Corp., 2012-09610, (10/22/2014): A New York appellate court revived a worker's Labor Law claim based on his injuries from a trench collapse at a residential development.

NEW! Passantino v. Made Realty Corp., 2013-05341, (10/22/2014): A New York appellate court ruled that a worker injured by a falling ladder could proceed with a claim under Labor Law Section 240(1) but not under Section 241(6).

NEW! Harkin v. County of Nassau, 2013-00158, (10/22/2014): A New York appellate court revived a dock builder's negligence and Labor Law claims based on his alleged fall while on a floating work platform.