LIRC Ruling May Force Payers to Reconsider Schoemehl Reserves

By John P. Kamin, ReporterInsurers and employers may have to adjust their reserves in light of a Missouri Labor and Industrial Review Commission decision stating that a Missouri law limiting benefits to remarried surviving spouses does not apply to the Schoemehl line of cases, which entitles dependents of of deceased claimants to continue to receive permanent total disability payments. The Labor and Industrial Review Commission's Oct. 10 decision in Shelton v. Titan Plastics Group is the first known ruling to discuss whether section 287.240 of the Missouri Revised Statutes applies to the S...