Illinois Case Law Update

Thursday, January 22, 2015 | 0

NEW! Bob Red Remodeling Inc. v. Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission (Lemanski), 1-13-0974WC, (12/31/2014): The Appellate Court of Illinois ruled that a worker was entitled to an award of permanent and total disability benefits based on his traumatic brain injury, and that he did not forfeit his entitlement to compensation by refusing to follow the doctor-recommended treatment plan authorized by his employer.

NEW! RG Construction Services v. Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission (Martinez), 1-13-2137WC, (12/31/2014): An employer's due process rights are not violated by its inability to cross-examine a worker's treating doctors about their opinions, as stated in the medical reports the worker submitted in support of his claim, the Illinois Appellate Court ruled.

NEW! Hiatt v. Western Plastics, 11-L-306, (12/2014): A divided Illinois Appellate Court panel revived a manufacturing worker's tort claim against his employer's alleged joint venturer based on an industrial accident that resulted in the amputation of both of his arms.

NEW! Village of Deerfield v. Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission, 2-13-1202WC, (12/23/2014): The Appellate Court of Illinois ruled that injuries to different body parts of the person-as-a-whole are not injuries to the same body part.

NEW! Matuszczak v. Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission, No. 12-MR-1631, (12/24/2014): The Appellate Court of Illinois is standing by its decision that a worker who was fired for stealing from his employer could continue collecting disability benefits after his termination because he had not reached maximum medical improvement before he lost his job.

NEW! In Re National Collegiate Athletic Association Student-Athlete Concussion Injury Litigation, No. MDL 2492. 12/17/2014): A federal trial judge in Illinois on Wednesday refused to sign off on a proposed $74 million settlement between a group of former college athletes and the National Collegiate Athletic Association to resolve the players' claims that the NCAA had wrongfully concealed the long-term risks of the concussions they sustained during their playing days from them.

The Levy Co. v. Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission et al., 1-13-1338WC, (11/14/2014): A trial court did not make a mistake in affirming the decision of the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission to accept two settlements and leave a third claim open, even though all claims had been consolidated, the state's First District Appellate Court ruled.

Omron Electronics v. Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission et al., 1-13-0766WC, (11/14/2014): Two doctors testifying that a man likely contracted a fatal bacterium while in Brazil makes it reasonable for the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission to award death benefits based on the theory that a worker died from a bacterium contracted while traveling to Brazil for work, an appellate court ruled.

Berrey v. Travelers Indemnity Co. of America, 13-3869, (10/22/2014): A federal trial court ruled that an injured worker was not entitled to recover the full amount of her damages from a car accident under her employer's underinsured motorist insurance policy when her employer had already recovered a payment from the auto liability carrier for the driver at-fault for the accident.

Farris v. Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission, 12-MR-21, (10/28/2014): The Illinois Appellate Court ruled that the deference ordinarily given to findings of fact by the Workers' Compensation Commission required it to uphold the commission's finding as to a worker's credibility since the incomplete record before it didn't allow it to review for any manifest error by the commission.