Tag: Workers Comp

An injured worker should have been permitted to move forward with his third-party negligence lawsuit stemming from a workplace vehicle accident because it was not barred by a workers compensation settlement, a Georgia appellate court ruled Tuesday.

The Georgia Court of Appeals said a trial court wrongly granted summary judgment to the defendants in a suit brought by William Hayes, who was injured in an accident while driving a vehicle for his employer, Waldrop’s Lawn Care.

Mr. Hayes was struck by a vehicle driven by Brian Gardner, employed by KSP Services LLC. Both Mr. Gardner and KSP Services were named as defendants.

A trial judge granted the defendants summary judgment, saying Mr. Hayes was barred from suing due to representations he made during the course of settlement his workers comp claim. The defense argued that Mr. Hayes concealed certain settlement documents.

Mr. Hayes asserted that the trial judge misconstrued terms under the workers comp law in analyzing the settlement documents and misapplied a legal doctrine called “judicial estoppel,” a concept preventing parties from taking positions that are contrary to positions taken in earlier legal proceedings.

The trial judge agreed with the defendants that Mr. Hayes was barred from suing because of “seemingly contradictory representations” made during his comp settlement.

The appeals court, however, said a “no liability” workers comp settlement between an employee and employer does not bar the injured worker from bringing tort claims against a third party. 

 

 

A West Virginia appellate court said Monday that a Wyoming County Commission employee was improperly denied workers compensation benefits for work-related injuries because the decision failed to take into account Social Security Disability benefits the claimant was already receiving for the same injuries.  

The Intermediate Court of Appeals of West Virginia vacated a Workers’ Compensation Board of Review ruling that affirmed a denial of permanent total disability benefits to the injured employee, who says he sustained physical and mental injuries after being struck by a vehicle in July 2018.

The worker, in Case No. 23-ICA-560, says he spent two weeks receiving hospital treatment. He also claims he suffered from depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.

In April 2020, he was awarded total disability benefits from the Social Security Administration, which determined that he had been totally disabled and unable to maintain “any substantial gainful employment,” the ruling states.

The comp review board found the worker was able to perform “substantial gainful sedentary work” and that disability benefits should be denied.

The worker asserted that the awarding of Social Security benefits should have been given greater weight in his denial determination. 

The appeals court agreed.

“The fact that a workers’ compensation claimant has been awarded social security disability benefits is persuasive evidence that the claimant is permanently and totally disabled for workers’ compensation purposes …,” the court wrote, before remanding the case for further proceedings. 

 

 

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Tuesday that it cited a Georgia sawmill after a worker was killed while attempting to clear a log jam in a woodchipper.

OSHA cited Hazlehurst-based Thompson Hardwoods Inc. for one “willful” violation and proposed $267,327 in penalties for the December 2023 incident in which the woodchipper inadvertently activated.

Coworkers attempted to render first-aid, but the employee died after being transported to a nearby hospital.

OSHA said Thompson failed to document and follow hazardous energy control procedures to prevent caught-in and struck-by hazards.  

The agency also cited the company for a “repeat” violation for failing to apply lockout/tagout devices to isolate energy sources, and it was additionally cited for two “serious” violations for failing to train employees on proper procedures to control energy and for failing to enclose the chain and sprocket on the woodchipper’s outfeed.

Thompson is owned by Beasley Johnson Holdings Inc., a Delaware corporation.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Tuesday that an investigation found a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs medical center in Arizona failed to protect health care workers against patient violence.

OSHA said the Northern Arizona VA Healthcare System’s Bob Stump VA Medical Center in Prescott exposed nurses, nursing assistants and housekeeping staff to patient violence, which included incidents of employees being bitten, struck, kicked, slapped, punched and sexually harassed.

The incidents were investigated in December 2023 and could have led to $161,323 in penalties if the medical center was a private-sector employee, OSHA said. Federal agencies are typically exempt from OSHA citations and penalties.

Instead of a citation and penalties, the center was issued a “notice of unsafe and unhealthful working conditions” and is required to demonstrate that it has abated the hazards, the agency said. While exempt from citations, federal agencies still must comply with the same safety and health standards as private employers, OSHA said.  

OSHA said health care sector employees face workplace violence at a rate of up to four times that of employees working in other industries.

 

 

Hawaii firefighters diagnosed with certain types of female cancers are presumed to have contracted the diseases on the job under a newly signed revision to the state’s workers compensation law.

Gov. Josh Green on Thursday signed House Bill 1889, now known as Act 101. The law creates a workers comp presumption for female firefighters diagnosed with breast, cervical and uterine cancers.

The measure was one of a number of bills introduced this year across the country to expand workers comp presumptions for firefighters diagnosed with cancer.

When they introduced the legislation, Hawaii lawmakers cited a National Library of Medicine study that showed female firefighters may develop various types of cancer at an earlier age than women in other occupations. 

“These findings illustrate the need to provide broad and presumptive medical coverage for female firefighters who have become ill,” the bill stated.

 

(Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Tuesday to hear a challenge by an Ohio company to the power of the federal workplace safety regulator as the justices avoided another legal effort to pare back the authority of federal agencies.

The justices turned away an appeal by Allstates Refractory Contractors after a lower court threw out the industrial furnace servicing company’s lawsuit against the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The lawsuit had claimed that Congress ceded power to OSHA to issue workplace safety standards in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s separation of powers among the federal government’s executive, legislative and judicial branches.

In its lawsuit, Allstates claimed that a 1970 federal law that gave OSHA sweeping authority to set “reasonably necessary or appropriate” safety standards violates the Constitution’s Article I, which gives lawmaking powers to Congress, not the other branches of government.

The company has invoked the so-called non-delegation doctrine, a legal theory embraced by conservatives based on the principle that Congress cannot cede its legislative authority to other entities, such as executive branch agencies.

Justice Neil Gorsuch indicated on Tuesday that he would have heard the dispute, while fellow conservative Justice Clarence Thomas wrote an opinion dissenting from the decision to deny the case.

“If this far-reaching grant of authority does not impermissibly confer legislative power on an agency,” Justice Thomas wrote, “it is hard to imagine what would.”

Allstates is represented Don McGahn, a lawyer with the firm Jones Day who previously worked as Republican former President Donald Trump’s White House counsel, where he spearheaded that administration’s deregulation efforts.

The company, which services the glass, metals, and petrochemical industries, in 2019 was cited and fined by OSHA for safety violations related to power tools and falling objects. It sued in 2021, calling OSHA’s enforcement “abusive and arbitrary.”

Allstates said in its lawsuit that despite its “outstanding track record of workplace safety,” it is forced to spend “more money than it otherwise would” to comply with OSHA’s safety standards, which prevent Allstates from choosing “how best to keep its employees safe.”

The Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2023 upheld the constitutionality of the power delegated to OSHA. The “reasonably necessary or appropriate” standard passes the Supreme Court’s requirement, set in 1928, that the law have an “intelligible principle” to guide and limit an agency’s delegated authority, the 6th Circuit concluded.

The Supreme Court last week dealt a major blow to federal regulatory power by overturning a 1984 precedent that had given deference to government agencies in interpreting laws they administer. The precedent arose from a ruling involving oil company Chevron that had called for judges to defer to reasonable federal agency interpretations of U.S. laws deemed to be ambiguous. This doctrine, long opposed by conservatives and business interests, was called “Chevron deference.”

 

 

 

Gallagher Bassett Services Inc., the claims and risk management subsidiary of Rolling Meadows, Illinois-based Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., said Tuesday that it has acquired claims management company NetClaim from Lake Oswego, Oregon-based Navex Global Inc. 

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

NetClaim, which provides first notice of loss and first report of injury services for risk management clients, insurers and third-party administrators across the U.S., will operate under Gallagher Bassett’s incident management team led by Niel Simon, Gallagher’s executive vice president of global solutions.

NetClaim has about 135 employees who are expected to transition to Gallagher Bassett as part of the merger, according to a Gallagher spokesman.

 

 

 

Injured workers in Washington are expected to see a 5.9% increase in their time-loss and pension payments under the state’s workers compensation system beginning this month, the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries announced Monday.

The benefits increase will only apply to employees collecting workers compensation for injuries that occurred on or before July 1, 2023, the department said.

Those injured after that date will not see their first benefits adjustment until after July 1, 2025.

The department said workers comp payments are increasing because the state’s average weekly wage similarly increased by 5.9% in June.

The increase also applies to pension benefits paid to dependents of workers who died because of a work-related accident or disease.

 

 

 

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Tuesday announced it is issuing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for a Heat Injury and Illness Prevention standard addressing the safety needs of those working in outdoor and indoor settings.

OSHA said the standard would require employers to create a plan to evaluate and control heat hazards that is site-specific and “clarify employer obligations and the steps necessary to effectively protect employees from hazardous heat.”

Much of the proposed rule addresses requirements on training, heat monitoring, protective gear, work breaks and rest areas, air conditioning, acclimatization for workers, and recordkeeping when injuries or fatalities occur.

The proposal would apply to all employers conducting outdoor and indoor work in all industries, with particular attention to the construction, maritime and agriculture sectors.

The drafted standard is awaiting imminent publication in the Federal Register, after which a public commenting period will begin.