Tag: Workers Comp

Colorado lawmakers on Tuesday introduced legislation that would amend death benefits paid to surviving spouses in workers compensation claims.

House Bill 1139 says that dependents of deceased employees who had worked jobs classified as high-risk would be eligible to receive lifetime death benefits even after remarrying.

Current language in the law only allows for lifetime benefits if the spouse remains unmarried; the benefits are terminated if the widow or widower gets remarried.

Jobs with a high-risk classification include employees of the Colorado State Patrol, the state’s Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Corrections, firefighters, wildlife officers, Department of Transportation and parks and recreation officers. 

 

 

An injured toll collector cannot sue over injuries she suffered after an ambulance collided with her tollbooth because of statutory immunity and because she already obtained workers compensation benefits for the injuries, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

Shannon Garst worked as a toll collector at an Interstate 44 tollbooth in Newcastle when she was struck by a speeding ambulance driver in June 2020 who was transporting a patient from Jackson County Memorial Hospital in Altus to an Oklahoma City facility.

Ms. Garst filed for workers comp that same month and filed a lawsuit in November 2021 against the driver and the Jackson County Emergency Medical Service District.

Ms. Garst sought a determination from the court that medical districts and their boards of trustees are separate legal entities, and that medical districts should be treated as private corporate entities for the purposes of litigation even if their boards are governmental entities immune to suit.

CompSource Mutual Insurance Co. later joined the litigation seeking reimbursement for workers compensation benefits awarded to Ms. Garst.

The medical district argued that both it and the ambulance driver were immune from suit.

The high court ruled medical districts are immune to litigation because they aren’t distinct from their board of trustees. 

It said medical districts are no different from municipalities and counties, which also enjoy statutory immunity.  

 

 

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Tuesday it cited an Alabama maintenance and repair contractor after a worker died in August 2023 while performing repairs on a screw conveyor system atop a cement silo.

OSHA cited Birmingham-based G&R Mineral Services Inc. for three serious violations for failing to remove employees from areas surrounding unguarded screw conveyors, failing to establish procedures to control hazardous energy and failing to inform a host employer of their lockout/tagout procedures.

OSHA proposed $38,715 in penalties.

The worker suffered fatal wounds after becoming caught in the conveyor.

Also cited was the company that G&R Mineral hired to perform the work – Port Everglades, Florida-based HM Southeast Cement LLC. The company was cited for three serious violations and assessed $43,554 in proposed penalties.

OSHA said HM Southeast failed to perform proper inspections, failed to establish procedures for controlling hazardous energy and failed to coordinate properly with its contractor.

Both companies have 15 business days to contest the citations and proposed penalties.   

 

 

The Alaska Supreme Court has vacated a $2.3 million jury award for a former state social worker who sued her employer for retaliation and wrongful termination over failures to protect her from a dangerous client.

The state high court on Thursday overturned the former employee’s award but let stand a lower court decision denying a motion for a new trial on liability that was filed by the Office of Children’s Services.

The agency claimed the jury award duplicated amounts the former employee received in workers compensation benefits. The high court said the trial record lacked sufficient evidence to resolve the matter.

The employee claimed she lost her job after raising concerns about the father of an agency youth who had become violent and injured her.  

The employee filed for workers comp after being injured in an assault in December 2016, and the claim remained unresolved at the time of the trial.

The jury awarded the woman $2.3 million in damages following a February 2020 trial. The trial court later denied the agency’s bid to amend the judgment to reflect an offset for workers comp benefits paid to the woman.

The high court said because the workers comp claim was still unresolved, it was not clear whether the benefits “do or would overlap and duplicate any part of the jury’s economic damages awards.”

The justices remanded the issue to the trial court with instructions for an evidentiary hearing to address whether the jury award represents the “impermissible duplication of damages.”

 

 

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has proposed more than $1 million in penalties against a New Jersey contractor for willfully and repeatedly exposing workers to fall hazards.

OSHA said Monday that it cited Paterson-based Adrian Construction Group LLC after a workplace safety inspection at a construction site in Franklin Lakes in July 2023.

The company was cited for six willful violations for lack of fall protection and four serious violations for unsafe scaffolds and not providing hard hats to workers.

OSHA said it inspected Adrian Construction five times since 2016 for similar violations. It added the company to the Severe Violators Enforcement program due to what OSHA termed the “egregious nature” of the incidents.

Adrian Construction, which is a residential carpentry and framing contractor, has 15 business days to contest the citation and the $1,017,248 in proposed penalties. 

 

 

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Monday it cited an Illinois construction contractor after workers were found exposed to deadly fall hazards at a job site in August 2023.

OSHA cited Oswego-based United Custom Homes LLC for one repeat, one willful, one serious and one other-than-serious violations and assessed $264,143 in proposed penalties after inspectors observed employees working atop a house under construction without protective equipment.

The company also failed to train employees in fall hazards and on the proper use of ladders, and it didn’t recertify workers in the operation of powered industrial vehicles every three years as required by law, OSHA said.

United Custom Homes has been cited for similar violations seven times in the past nine years, and the contractor still owes $238,572 in outstanding penalties, according to OSHA.

The company has 15 business days to contest the latest citation and proposed penalties.

 

An appeals court in West Virginia Thursday declined to give permanent partial disability to a woman who says her depression, anxiety, fatigue and shortness of breath were related to a COVID-19 infection she contracted at work in January 2021.

The woman, whose claim for COVID-19 was accepted by Princeton Community Hospital Association, saw several doctors in filing for disability, as documented in No. 23-ICA-336, filed in the Intermediate Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

In August 2021, a doctor specializing in sleep medicine and pulmonary disease opined she “did not have measurable whole person impairment related to the compensable injury” and that her “symptoms of fatigue were related to her poor sleep schedule and untreated sleep apnea.”

Later in 2021, she was seen by a psychiatrist who said she did not have any psychiatric conditions related to COVID-19 and, based on the American Medical Association’s Guides  to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, “had no whole person impairment related to psychiatric conditions.”

In 2022, she was seen twice by an internist who said she was suffering from “post-COVID-19 chronic condition symptoms,” noting that her anxiety and depression “had been exacerbated by COVID-19” and that she began suffering from “shortness of breath after her diagnosis of COVID-19.”

In 2023, the West Virginia Workers’ Compensation Board of Review ruled that the woman did not provide “sufficient” medical evidence to prove permanent impairment.

The appeals court agreed, writing that the third doctor who opined that she had been suffering from long-term issues related to COVID-19 “did not offer an impairment rating or otherwise address any permanent impairment related to her compensable diagnosis.”

“Although (the worker) may feel that she is suffering from a permanent impairment related to her compensable injury, she has failed to offer any medical evidence supporting that conclusion,” the court wrote.

 

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Thursday it cited a Melbourne, Florida-based crane rental company after a worker was electrocuted in August 2023.

OSHA cited Capt’n Hook’s Crane Service Inc. following the worker fatality at a Palm Bay residential construction project. The individual died after contacting two 13,200-volt power lines while suspended from the crane boom.

Capt’n Hook was cited for three serious violations for using an uncertified crane operator and operating a hydraulic crane within 200 feet of overhead power lines.

The citation also contains two other-than-serious violations for not labeling and marking rigging equipment and failing to ensure the legibility of warning labels on the crane.

OSHA proposed $26,585 in penalties.

Capt’n Hook has 15 business days to contest the citation and proposed penalties.  

 

 

A New York appeals court on Wednesday ruled that a trial judge improperly dismissed a subrogation action brought by an auto insurer seeking to recover costs from a workers compensation insurer stemming from a work-related motor vehicle accident.

The Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court determined that State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. should have been permitted to pursue subrogation against Amtrust North America Inc. over payments State Farm made to its insured for medical services.

State Farm’s policyholders were hurt in a no-fault auto accident in July 2018. Amtrust was directed by the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board to pay for medical treatments, and State Farm argued it was entitled to fully recover no-fault benefits it had provided following the accident.

State Farm sued for unjust enrichment, but Amtrust sought to dismiss the complaint, claiming that the comp board had jurisdiction over the dispute. A trial judge agreed.

The appeals court said the trial judge should have referred the matter to the comp board instead of dismissing it entirely. It sent the case back to the trial court for further determination.