Important Recent Case Law for Illinois

Tuesday, July 29, 2014 | 0

NEW! Young v. Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission (Doncasters), 4-13-0392WC, (06/07/2014): The Illinois Appellate Court ruled that a factory worker who injured himself while reaching into a box had suffered a compensable injury that arose out of an employment-related risk.

NEW! Levato v. Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission (City of Chicago), 1-13-0297WC, (06/30/2014): The Appellate Court of Illinois ruled that a municipal employee was not entitled to permanent total disability benefits for a back injury, but questions as to whether he was entitled to wage-loss benefits remained, and the Workers' Compensation Commission had to answer.

NEW! Folta v. Ferro Engineering, 1-12-3219, (06/27/2014): An employee can sue his employer outside of the Workers' Compensation Act and the Workers' Occupational Diseases Act when the employee first learns of his injury after the expiration of the statute of repose under those acts, the Illinois Appellate Court ruled.

NEW! Sunny Hill of Will County v. The Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission, 3-13-0028WC, (06/26/2014): A nurse did not lose her entitlement to temporary total disability benefits for a shoulder and back injury by spending time helping her daughters at a flower shop that they owned, the Illinois Appellate Court ruled.

Michael v. Pella Products, 1-13-2695, (06/25/2014): The Appellate Court of Illinois ruled that an individual who works for a corporation that had a business relationship with another company could not maintain an action against that other company under the Illinois Employee Classification Act for refusing to treat him as its employee.

Carter v. Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission, 5-13-0151WC, (06/09/2014): The five-year limitations period in the Illinois Workers' Occupational Diseases Act applies only to the specific condition of "coal miner's pneumoconiosis," and not any other respiratory disease that can be caused by exposure to coal dust, the state Appellate Court ruled. 

Tolbert v. Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission (Prairie Central Cooperative), 130523WC, (06/05/2014): The Illinois 4th District Appellate Court reversed a ruling against a claimant who alleged his respiratory illness was caused by exposure to bird feces and grain dust, finding that the Workers' Compensation Commission's conclusion was not supported by the manifest weight of the evidence.

Wright v. Board of Trustees, State Universities Retirement System of Illinois, 4-13-0719, (05/22/2014): The Appellate Court of Illinois ruled that the state retirement system for university workers was entitled to take an offset from the disability retirement benefits payable to an injured worker commensurate with the amount of temporary total disability benefits she received from the workers' compensation system.

Hooker v. The Retirement Board of the Firemen's Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago, 1-13-1568, (05/22/2014): The Illinois Appellate Court ruled that the heirs of a widow who had mounted a long-running battle about the amount of benefits due to her after the death of her husband, a firefighter for the city of Chicago, ruled that her claims did not survive her own death. 

Compass Group v. Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission, 12-MR-700, (05/13/2014): The Appellate Court of Illinois denied rehearing as to an employer's claim that it had not intended to stipulate to the payment of fee schedule rates for an employee's medical treatment expenses and maintained its original ruling awarding benefits to the employee and directing that the employee's request for reimbursement for his home modifications be reconsidered by the Workers' Compensation Commission.