Law Commons^™

Beyond Title Vii: Litigating Harassment By Nonemployees Under The Ada And Adea, Kate Bradley

Washington Law Review

Employees in the United States are protected from unlawful harassment that rises to the level of a “hostile work environment.” Federal circuits recognize that employers could be liable under Title VII when their employees experience hostile work environments because of harassment from nonemployees. However, outside of Title VII, not all federal circuits have recognized that the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) protect employees from hostile work environments.

As a result, employees are vulnerable with respect to age and disability-based harassment. This Comment argues that all federal circuits should allow …

Exception To The Rule: Relaxing The Standard For Intentional Torts Under The Industrial Insurance Act, Brad Westmoreland

Washington Law Review Online

In Walston v. Boeing, the Supreme Court of Washington upheld a standard used to determine whether a worker injured by his employer’s deliberate intent to expose him to toxic materials could pursue remedies outside of the state’s workers’ compensation system. The Birklid standard—which requires claimants seeking remedies under the “deliberate intention” exception to show that an employer willfully disregarded actual knowledge that an injury was certain to occur—effectively prevents toxic exposure claimants from surviving motions for summary judgment. This result runs in strict contravention of the Legislature’s purpose in enacting both the deliberate intention exception and the Industrial …

Bypassing Redundancy: Resolving The Jurisdictional Dilemma Under The Defense Base Act, Claire Been

Washington Law Review

In 1941, Congress passed the Defense Base Act (DBA) to provide workers’ compensation coverage to civilian workers employed overseas under U.S. government contracts or on U.S. military bases. Congress modeled the DBA after the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (Longshore Act), modifying certain provisions to provide for accidents that occur overseas. In 1972, Congress amended the procedures governing review of claims under the Longshore Act. The amendments required workers to appeal claim-related decisions to a new administrative board and then to a U.S. court of appeals. Before the amendments, a worker’s first appeal under the Longshore Act was to …

Wrongful Termination Of Benefits Under The Longshore And Harborworkers' Compensation Act: A Compromise Approach, Gregory L. Russell

Washington Law Review

While many state supreme courts have considered whether to allow actions against a compensation insurer for intentional infliction of emotional distress and bad faith, the issues have not been clearly settled under one federal compensation statute, the Longshore and Harborworkers' Compensation Act (LHWCA). Three federal courts have apparently adopted different approaches, modeled after the three approaches taken by state courts. This Comment argues that the "Compromise approach," which allows actions based on intentional infliction of emotional distress but rejects actions based on bad faith, is most consistent with the policies underlying the LHWCA and should be followed by the courts.

Workers' Compensation—Third-Party Tort Liability To Injured Workers Under R.C.W. Title 51—Seattle-First National Bank V. Shoreline Concrete Co., 91 Wn. 2d 230, 588 P.2d 1308 (1978), Cheryl A. Johnson

Washington Law Review

Washington's Industrial Insurance Act immunizes employers from tort actions brought by their injured employees. Dissatisfied with the modest compensation assured by the Act, employees often seek other parties to sue. Manufacturers who supply job-related equipment to employers are popular defendants because they are unprotected by the Act. In Seattle-First National Bank v. Shoreline Concrete Co. the Washington Supreme Court rendered the manufacturer's role as the employer's cotortfeasor particularly onerous. With only a cursory examination of policy, the court interpreted the Act as immunizing employers from suits by manufacturers for contribution, indemnity, or apportionment. In rejecting the trial court's innovative attempt …

The Effect Of The Pendency Of Claims For Compensation Upon Behavior Indicative Of Pain, Cornelius J. Peck, Wilbert E. Fordyce, Richard G. Black

Washington Law Review

Recent theories endeavoring to explain manifestations of pain in humans have increasingly recognized the effect of sociological and psychological processes on pain.This article reports findings made in a research project based on the hypothesis that the pendency of a claim for compensation has the effect of causing greater, more intense, and more persistent pain than would otherwise be experienced if persons had not sought compensation. The study assumed that pain can most accurately be measured by observing behavior indicative of pain and focused on data reflecting such behavior. The lawyer-author of this article thought the study might demonstrate that current …

Federal Common Law Remedies Under The Occupational Safety And Health Act Of 1970, Robert G. Mullendore

Washington Law Review

The purpose of this comment is to determine the extent to which section 5 is enforceable by private suit in federal court. Of particular concern is whether compensatory damages are available as a matter of federal law to persons injured as a result of violations of the section. The conclusion reached is that compensatory relief for violations of subsection 5(a) is available under federal common law when recovery is inadequate or unavailable under local law and the plaintiff's injuries exceed $10,000 in value. In this way, the 1970 Act provides a needed supplement to state workmen's compensation systems.

Workmen's Compensation—Washington's Recent Amendments: Universal Mandatory Coverage, Liberalized Benefits, And A Controversial Two-Way Plan—Ch. 289, Washington Laws Of 1971; Ch. 43, Washington Laws Of 1972, Anon

Washington Law Review

In the closing hours of the 1971 First Extraordinary Session, the Washington Legislature enacted legislation substantially amending Washington's Workmen's Compensation Act. The major provisions of the amendments provide for extension of mandatory coverage to virtually all workers, substantial increases in benefits in most areas of compensation, and an option allowing employers to self-insure under limited and highly restricted conditions. The Act was further amended by the 1972 legislature. The liberalization of coverage and benefits generally met with the approval of both industry and labor, but industry was disappointed with the failure of the legislature to adopt the "three-way plan" proposed …

Workmen's Compensation—Back Injuries—Absence Of Unusual Strain Or Exertion, Anon

Washington Law Review

The Washington Supreme Court recently refused to apply the "unusual strain" test used in heart attack cases to back injury litigation. Claimant, a clerk-typist, suffered a herniated intervertebral disc when she twisted around to answer a telephone which rang as she was bending over in the opposite direction. Claimant's employer contended that her injury did not constitute a "sudden and tangible happening of a traumatic nature" within the statutory definition of "injury" in the Industrial Insurance Act. A compensation award by the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals was upheld by the trial court. On appeal, held: Impairment of claimant's skeletal …

Aggravation Outside Covered Employment Of Prior Industrial Injury Is Compensable, Anon

Washington Law Review

In 1955, claimant suffered a sacroiliac strain while working within employment covered by the Washington Industrial Insurance Act. His compensation claim was closed with an award of $1,800 and a determination of thirty per cent permanent partial disability. Three years later, while visiting a relative, claimant unloaded some heavy sacks of grain and carried them from a truck into a storage building. He was obliged to undergo medical treatment the next day for pain and stiffness in his back. Claimant's application to readjust his previous award was rejected by the Department of Labor and Industries on the ground that he …

Workmen's Compensation, Richard Cosway

Washington Law Review

Covers recent amendments to the Industrial Insurance Act.

Workmen's Compensation, Robert Debruyn

Washington Law Review

Covers cases on hearsay evidence—doctor's opinion.

Workmen's Compensation, Donald A. Eide

Washington Law Review

Covers cases on employees for the short term.

Workmen's Compensation, Toni Rembe

Washington Law Review

Covers cases on horseplay during the course of employment.

Heart Attack Cases Under The Washington Workmen's Compensation Act, Floyd L. Newland

Washington Law Review

The recent case of Windust v. Department of Labor and Industries brought an important change in Washington workmen's compensation law with the overruling of a long-standing rule relating to recovery under workmen's compensation for heart failure. The Windust case apparently means there can be recovery for heart failure resulting from strain only when the strain is "unusual." It appears that if the worker is doing only a routine act there can be no recovery. Though the new rule is not definitively articulated at this point, this inquiry will attempt to assess what the Washington Supreme Court has done and indicate …

Jurisdictional Problems Between Washington's Workmen's Compensation Act And Federal Law, John D. Lawson

Washington Law Review

In this comment, the principal concern will be with the conflict between the federal law and the state act in respect to the railway worker and the shoreline worker whose activity takes him upon navigable waters of the United States. It is in these areas that the confusion as to jurisdictional matters becomes the most difficult to resolve. The applicable federal statutes are the Federal Employers' Liability Act covering railroad employees, and the Longshoremen and Harbor Worker's Act covering shoreline employees. The discussion in this paper will be devoted to ascertaining the extent of federal pre-emption and the area left …

Workmen's Compensation, Theordore O. Torve

Washington Law Review

Covers cases on the longshoremen's act—right to sue fellow employees and on third-party tort action by a workman under the Industrial Insurance Act against a physician for malpractice.

The Board Of Industrial Insurance Appeals After Nine Years: A Partial Evaluation, Donald H. Wollett

Washington Law Review

Prior to 1949 the Department of Labor and Industries adjusted claims made under the Washington Industrial Insurance Act arising out of industrial injury, death, and disease, subject to review by the superior courts. Initial determinations were made ex parte by the Supervisor of Industrial Insurance. Appellate determinations, where a re-hearing was requested, were made by the Joint Board, consisting of the Director of the Department and two of his subordinates—the same Supervisor of Industrial Insurance who had made the initial determination, and the Supervisor of Safety. The Joint Board's primary function was quasi-judicial. However, since the tribunal consisted of the …

Extraterritorial Effect Of The Washington Workmen's Compensation Act And Constitutional Implications, Peter J. Samuelson

Washington Law Review

The extraterritorial effect of worknen's compensation acts offers problems of a complex nature which have often led to confusion and excessive litigation. Problems involved include not only the application of substantive and procedural workmen's compensation law, but also constitutional considerations of due process and full faith and credit. The general area is usually treated under the subject of conflict of laws.

Workmen's Compensation Law, Donald H. Wollett

Washington Law Review

Covers action against persons whose negligence caused compensable injury or disease and benefit payable under the statute.

Workman's Compensation, Jerome Farris, David J. Whitmore

Washington Law Review

Covers cases on the substittion of a personal representative of a deceased claimant (Farris) and on recovery of independent contractors (Whitmore).

Workman's Compensation, Clarence Shuh

Washington Law Review

Covers cases on causation in heart cases.

Proposed Procedure For Administering Heart Cases Under The Washington Industrial Insurance Act, Ivan C. Rutledge

Washington Law Review

Recent and authoritative medical investigations have convinced qualified cardiologists that the great majority of cardiac patients can perform productive labor without physical harm to themselves. Despite the assurance of cardiologists, many industrial concerns are reluctant to employ workmen suffering from cardiac disorders due to fear of increased industrial insurance costs. The resultant nonemployment of these patients when otherwise employable not only creates needless despair for themselves and their families, but it deprives the industrial community of many skills developed over long years of training. It is the purpose of this article to review the Washington Industrial Insurance Act to determine …

Workmen's Compensation, Anon

Washington Law Review

Coves a case on whether a nonresident motor carrier is covered by the Workmen's Compensation Act.

Workmen's Compensation, Jack Ruegg

Washington Law Review

Covers cases on a wife's loss of consortium under destruction of common law remedies, on the limitation of the time to file a claim related to a doctor's duty to inform an injured worker of his rights, and on the immunity provision of an employer that has no employees and the right to subscribe to benefits.

Personal Injury Actions And Immunities Under The Workmen's Compensation Act, Hugh Mcgough

Washington Law Review

The purpose of this article is to examine the extent to which the personal injury action can now be utilized to recover damages for injuries connected with employment in the State of Washington. The first inquiry will be into the scope of the Workmen's Compensation Act; the second into actions reserved or created by the act.

Workmen's Compensation—Employees In Dual Activity, Gordon F. Crandall

Washington Law Review

The recent case of Muck v. Snokomish County PUD presented an issue involving the compulsory coverage of the Industrial Insurance Act, more commonly known as Workmen's Compensation, which has been a confusing question in several other cases, and does not yet seem to be finally resolved. There an employee was a sales manager for an electrical appliance store, and his occupation as such did not bring him under the compulsory provisions of the Act. No industrial insurance premiums were paid for his time. On the day of his death, he accompanied the serviceman to a customer's house where they were …

Workmen's Compensation Act—Immunity Of Third Party Employer, Richard M. Oswald

Washington Law Review

D, a foreign corporation engaged in manufacturing chemicals, sold to X scrap iron including a coil of pipe which D had used in its business. P, an employee of a salvage dealer, was ordered by his employer to pick up the scrap iron at X's yard. In order to place the coil of pipe in proper position on his truck, P struck the pipe with a maul, the force of the blow causing a corrosive substance to issue from the pipe and injure P. Instead of taking compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Act, P elected to sue the tortfeasor. Judgment …

A New Tribunal Of The State Of Washington, Ivan C. Rutledge

Washington Law Review

An important part of the business of the state of Washington is the insurance of employees against industrial accident and disease. The premiums paid by employers covered by the industrial insurance laws now support awards for disability and death amounting to some eleven million dollars a year. The attorney general employs ten or twelve attorneys full time to represent the state in cases involving the Department of Labor and Industries. Not counting the expense borne by the courts, the 1951 legislature appropriated approximately $868,000 for litigation costs for the biennium. A new state agency has been created to review the …

Washington Workmen's Compensation: The Duplicate Task Of Commission And Courts In Hearing Appeals Upon The Facts, M. Bayard Crutcher

Washington Law Review

There are few instances in the law when a litigant can appeal to three successive tribunals upon findings of fact alone, and obtain a complete rehearing in each of them Such is the anomalous procedure permitted in cases arising under our Industrial Insurance Act. That, and the provision for a jury sitting on the second appeal, may help to explain the frequency with which "Blank v Department of Labor and Industries" appears in our advance sheets.