A Louisiana appellate court has ruled that an oil field surveyor was not entitled to workers compensation benefits on his COVID-19 occupational disease claim.
The Louisiana Third Circuit Court of Appeal, on April 3, reversed a workers comp judge’s decision awarding benefits to Jacob Kibodeaux, determining that the employer, Jan’s Construction Co. Inc., should have been granted summary judgment.
Mr. Kibodeaux, who had to travel as part of his employment, said he contracted COVID-19 during his job when he was sent to work in Kilgore, Texas, in September 2021.
He went through a “lengthy treatment,” which included a stay in a hospital’s critical care unit for more than two months, the ruling states.
Mr. Kibodeaux claimed he had not been able to return to work since that time.
Jan’s Construction challenged the workers comp claim, contending that COVID-19 isn’t a compensable occupational disease under Louisiana’s workers comp law.
The appeals court found the workers comp judge erred in finding the illness compensable, writing that while Mr. Kibodeaux said he was on call for his job 24 hours a day, “this assertion, alone, is not sufficient to prove any event(s) occurring at the workplace, hotel, restaurant or other occurrence which may have led to his contracting COVID-19.”
While the court reversed the benefits award, it acknowledged that there are no Louisiana appellate cases specifically addressing COVID-19 as an occupational disease.