Business Group Urges Review of Supreme Ct. Decision

A Missouri business group is urging state lawmakers to clear up a statute that resulted in a state Supreme Court decision that awarded unpaid permanent disability benefits to the spouse of a deceased injured worker. The high court ruled in Annette Schoemehl v. Missouri Second Injury Fund, No. SC87750, 1/9/2007, that Schoemehl was entitled to her deceased husband's permanent partial disability benefits for the remainder of her lifetime. Fred Schoemehl died one month after he was awarded benefits for a knee injury, for reasons unrelated to his industrial ailment. The court said in its 4...