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Workers' Compensation Law Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Workers' Compensation Law

Compensation, Commodification, And Disablement: How Law Has Dehumanized Laboring Bodies And Excluded Nonlaboring Humans, Karen M. Tani Apr 2021

Compensation, Commodification, And Disablement: How Law Has Dehumanized Laboring Bodies And Excluded Nonlaboring Humans, Karen M. Tani

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Injury Impoverished: Workplace Accidents, Capitalism, and Law in the Progressive Era. by Nate Holdren.


Workers' Comp And Contagious Disease: History And Future, Kate E. Britt Jan 2021

Workers' Comp And Contagious Disease: History And Future, Kate E. Britt

Law Librarian Scholarship

Modern workers’ compensation schemes set out to provide financial relief to employees who contract an occupational disease during employment, like miners contracting black lung or contractors exposed to asbestos. Certain professions are understood to stand a particular risk of exposure to contagious diseases. Health-care workers interact with persons carrying contagious disease as a matter of course. What workers’ compensation does not cover are diseases which are so prevalent they are considered an “ordinary disease of life.” These diseases, like the common cold, influenza, or pneumonia, could be contracted by persons regardless of their profession, and workers’ compensation acts generally limit …


Defining "Disability": The Approach To Follow, Theodore J. St. Antoine Jan 1993

Defining "Disability": The Approach To Follow, Theodore J. St. Antoine

Articles

The definition of "disability" has once again become a central issue in workers' compensation law. I am partly responsible. A decade ago I served as the Governor's Special Counselor on Workers' Compensation. In my Reportto the Cabinet Council on Jobs and Economic Development, I stated: "If I could write on a clean slate, I would prefer to see the Michigan definition brought even closer into the mainstream of American law by declaring that 'disability' means a 'limitation of an employee's wage earning capacity in work suitable to his or her qualifications and training resulting from a personal injury or work …


The Constitutional Conundrum Of Black Lung Appeals: Two Proposed Solutions, Pete S. Michaels Oct 1989

The Constitutional Conundrum Of Black Lung Appeals: Two Proposed Solutions, Pete S. Michaels

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Part I of this Article explains the statutory requirements that a black lung benefits claimant must meet and how these claimants' failure to meet statutory prerequisites results in the dismissal of their claims. Part II argues that the current procedures are inadequate to protect the rights of black lung benefits claimants. Dismissal of their claims violates the petitioners' rights to due process of law and pro se representation. Part III proposes two solutions to the crisis. The first proposal is simply a form that would be distributed to all claimants explaining the procedures they must follow to avoid dismissal. Part …


A Moderate And Restrained Federal Product Liability Bill: Targeting The Crisis Areas For Resolution, Aaron D. Twerski Apr 1985

A Moderate And Restrained Federal Product Liability Bill: Targeting The Crisis Areas For Resolution, Aaron D. Twerski

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

In this article I have tried to offer a rational, feasible, and politically acceptable solution to the present product liability crisis. To do this, I have first set out the problem. I explain in Part I how courts have created the crisis by formulating incomprehensible legal standards. In Part II, I examine the difficulties with assessing punitive damages against a defendant. In Part III, I discuss the conflict between the torts and workers' compensation systems. In Part IV, I reflect on the need to protect wholesalers and retailers from needless litigation. Part V suggests that a federal study on the …


Workers' Compensation Reform: A Case Study Of The Legislative Process In Michigan, Robert Vanderlaan, Richard K. Studley Apr 1981

Workers' Compensation Reform: A Case Study Of The Legislative Process In Michigan, Robert Vanderlaan, Richard K. Studley

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

At a 1979 workers' compensation seminar for the Michigan Legislature, University of Michigan law professor Marcus Plant closed by noting that "[m]y intent was to sketch in broad strokes the background of our workers' disability compensation law. It is my firm belief that wise decisions as to where we should go cannot be made unless we know how we got where we are. " I share Professor Plant's belief. I feel strongly that wise public policy decisions about where we should go next in the reform process depend substantially on a good understanding of how we got where we are …


Presumption Of Dependence In Workers' Compensation Death Benefits As A Denial Of Equal Protection, A. Russell Localio Jan 1975

Presumption Of Dependence In Workers' Compensation Death Benefits As A Denial Of Equal Protection, A. Russell Localio

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This note will examine the sex bias prevalent in many workers' compensation statutes and the constitutionality of these statutes in light of recent Supreme Court decisions on sex discrimination. After this examination, alternative methods for effecting reform of the sex-biased death benefit provisions will be analyzed.


Workmen's Compensation: Toward A Stricter Liability For Enterprise, John A. Payne Jr. Jan 1972

Workmen's Compensation: Toward A Stricter Liability For Enterprise, John A. Payne Jr.

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This article considers the situation in which an employee injured by a defective product in the course of his employment can proceed both against his employer insured by a workmen's compensation program and against a manufacturer of the employer's equipment who is strictly liable under a claim of products liability. The focus is not on the manufacturer as employer but on the manufacturer as supplier of defective equipment which causes injury. This is the best situation for analyzing the problems arising from the present system for distributing losses because, where the negligence of the employer has been an independent cause …


Workmen's Compensation--Encouraging Employment Of The Handicapped In Michigan: A Proposal For Revision Of The Michigan Second Injury Fund, Michigan Law Review Dec 1968

Workmen's Compensation--Encouraging Employment Of The Handicapped In Michigan: A Proposal For Revision Of The Michigan Second Injury Fund, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Employment of the handicapped is clearly a proper concern of the state. Unemployed, such a person is a burden on his family and on the state; welfare and relief payments to such a person needlessly increase costs to both the state and local governments supporting such programs. Employed, the handicapped person is a self-supporting, stable member of the community; he becomes a taxpayer rather than a tax consumer. There are also important moral and social considerations which may be simply summarized stating that no person who is able to work should be needlessly denied employment. In short, any continued waste …


The "Heart Cases" In Workmen's Compensation: An Analysis And Suggested Solution, Arthur Larson Jan 1967

The "Heart Cases" In Workmen's Compensation: An Analysis And Suggested Solution, Arthur Larson

Michigan Law Review

It is one of the great tragedies of the workmen's compensation story that almost all courts, in their perfectly justifiable search for a legal barrier that would keep compensation heart liability from getting out of hand, have seized upon the wrong component in the coverage formula. The words "by accident" or their equivalent were pressed into service for this task, ·and they have proved to be a most ill-fitting tool for this function. If the courts had followed the more logical course of testing these cases by the causal principle prescribed by the words "arising out of the employment," there …


The Longshoremen's And Harbor Workers' Compensation Act Of 1927: Half-Way Protection For The Stevedore And The Longshoreman, Robert E. Gilbert Jun 1966

The Longshoremen's And Harbor Workers' Compensation Act Of 1927: Half-Way Protection For The Stevedore And The Longshoreman, Robert E. Gilbert

Michigan Law Review

The law relating to longshoremen's remedies abounds with surprising anomalies, hyper-technical distinctions, and bits and pieces of judicial legislation. This situation stems largely from deficiencies in the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act of 1927, an inherently inadequate statute greatly distorted by recent judicial interpretation. This Comment undertakes an examination of the act's most salient shortcomings with a view to suggesting possible guidelines for what is believed to be necessary corrective legislation.


Unemployment Compensation For Employees On Required Vacation Without Pay, Michigan Law Review Jun 1966

Unemployment Compensation For Employees On Required Vacation Without Pay, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The Social Security Act of 1935 created a federal-state system of unemployment compensation which permits the states to establish their mvn standards of qualification for unemployment benefits. All states have enacted statutes pursuant to this system and have established three basic conditions which a claimant must meet before he is entitled to benefits. First, he must be unemployed. Second, he must remain able to work and available for work. Third, he must be free from disqualification for such acts as voluntarily leaving work without good cause attributable to the employer or employing unit, discharge for conduct connected with the work, …


Radiation Injuries And Time Limitations In Workmen's Compensation Cases, Samuel D. Estep, Walter R. Allan Dec 1963

Radiation Injuries And Time Limitations In Workmen's Compensation Cases, Samuel D. Estep, Walter R. Allan

Michigan Law Review

The increasing use of radioactive materials and radiation-producing devices in industry and elsewhere makes it clear that injuries from exposure to radiation must be anticipated. It becomes relevant, therefore, to inquire into the extent to which the present workmen's compensation statutes will be able to cope with the injuries which may arise from the use of this new source of energy.


Advocating The Rights Of The Injured, Benjamin Marcus Mar 1963

Advocating The Rights Of The Injured, Benjamin Marcus

Michigan Law Review

When workmen's compensation was first introduced a half century ago, it was felt necessary to cushion the shock in a number of ways. One of these was the idea of a bargain, an exchange, in which the worker, to obtain the new remedy based on liability without fault, gave up his existing remedy, the right to a tort action against his employer for a negligent injury. It is time that the terms of that bargain be re-examined.


Longshoreman-Shipowner-Stevedore: The Circle Of Liability, Harney B. Stover, Jr. Jan 1963

Longshoreman-Shipowner-Stevedore: The Circle Of Liability, Harney B. Stover, Jr.

Michigan Law Review

It is universally recognized that in the past two decades the United States Supreme Court has substantially revised the law under which seamen, longshoremen and harbor workers (or their survivors) may recover damages for personal injury and death. One of the more recent and most authoritative texts in the field of admiralty and maritime law devotes an entire chapter, 147 pages in length, to the subject of the rights of seamen and maritime workers (or their survivors) of recovery for injury and death. The introduction to that chapter likens the Court's rewriting of the law in this field to a …


Workermen's Compensation-Third-Party Actions-Employer's Recovery On An Implied Warranty, Philip Sotiroff Jan 1962

Workermen's Compensation-Third-Party Actions-Employer's Recovery On An Implied Warranty, Philip Sotiroff

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff seeks to recover the amount of a workmen's compensation award paid to his employee as a result of injuries received when an exhaust valve malfunctioned causing a press which the employee was operating to double-trip. Defendant, an independent parts supplier who had sold plaintiff the valve, moved to dismiss the complaint because of insufficiency of evidence to sustain the verdict and plaintiff's legal incapacity to sue. On appeal from an order denying the motion to dismiss, held, affirmed, one judge dissenting. Plaintiff has two independent causes of action, one against the manufacturer on an assigned negligence theory, and …


Radiation Injuries And Statistics: The Need For A New Approach To Injury Litigation, Samuel D. Estep Dec 1960

Radiation Injuries And Statistics: The Need For A New Approach To Injury Litigation, Samuel D. Estep

Michigan Law Review

The emphasis given by the mass media of communication to some of the dramatic problems arising from the use of nuclear energy unfortunately has diverted attention from some of the matters about which something can be done by lawyers, administrators, and legislators without the necessity of complicated international negotiations between various parties to the "Cold War." The headlines leave the uninformed, and perhaps often also the informed, public with the impression that even for radiation injuries the important problems all deal with such questions as: (1) Will only a few or many millions of people survive an all-out nuclear war? …


Unemployment Compensation - Labor Dispute Disqualification - Workers Unemployed By A Mult-Employer Lockout, James B. Blanchard S.Ed. Nov 1960

Unemployment Compensation - Labor Dispute Disqualification - Workers Unemployed By A Mult-Employer Lockout, James B. Blanchard S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Two unions of restaurant employees voted to strike the local restaurant industry in order to obtain a more favorable master contract with a restaurant owners' association. The unions executed this program by strategically calling strikes on only a few key restaurants. The association retaliated by notifying its members to lay off their employees in accordance with its previously announced policy to consider a called strike against one member a called strike against all members. The California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board held that the union employees laid off in response to the association's notice were "voluntarily'' out of work and therefore …


Workmen's Compensation - Proceedings To Secure Compensation - Allowance Of Attorney's Fees To Claimants Unsuccessful On Appeal, Clayton R. Smalley Feb 1960

Workmen's Compensation - Proceedings To Secure Compensation - Allowance Of Attorney's Fees To Claimants Unsuccessful On Appeal, Clayton R. Smalley

Michigan Law Review

Employee claimed total permanent disability as a result of an industrial accident, but was awarded compensation for only a twenty percent permanent disability. Claimant was denied certiorari by the Florida District Court of Appeals. However, claimant's request for an allowance of reasonable attorney's fees for the unsuccessful appeal was granted. Claimant's employer was then granted certiorari on its contention that the Florida workmen's compensation statute and a past Florida Supreme Court decision had established that attorney's fees would be allowed only when the claimant's appeal was successful. On certiorari, held, award of attorney's fees affirmed. The statute allows an …


Administrative Law - Workmen's Compensation Proceedings - Use Of Lay Representatives, Stanley A. Williams S.Ed. Jan 1960

Administrative Law - Workmen's Compensation Proceedings - Use Of Lay Representatives, Stanley A. Williams S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The West Virginia Bar Association sued to enjoin the defendant, a layman, from representing claimants before the State Compensation Commission. Lay representation was authorized by the commission under its power to make rules of procedure. The injunction was granted by the circuit court. On appeal, held, affirmed. Neither the legislature nor the commission can authorize a layman to represent claimants before an administrative agency, since this would encroach upon the judiciary's inherent power to control the practice of law. West Virginia State Bar v. Earley, (W. Va. 1959) 109 S.E. (2d) 420.


Workmen's Compensation - Occupational Diseases - Radiation Injury Amendment, Vance A. Fisher S.Ed. Dec 1959

Workmen's Compensation - Occupational Diseases - Radiation Injury Amendment, Vance A. Fisher S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

The Kansas Workmen's Compensation Act has recently been amended to take more complete account of the complex nature of injuries which might arise through the increased use of radioactive materials and ionizing radiation. The effect of the amendment is twofold. First, it makes more inclusive the definition of radiation injury as an occupational disease by treating "exposure to ionizing radiation" as a cause of compensable injury. Second, it removes all time limitation periods with regard to the giving of notice and the filing of claims and extends the general limitation period from one year from the date of disablement or …


Admiralty- "Twilight Zone" In Workmen's Compensation - Pursuit Of State Common Law Action Against Employer, James S. Leigh Jun 1959

Admiralty- "Twilight Zone" In Workmen's Compensation - Pursuit Of State Common Law Action Against Employer, James S. Leigh

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner was injured on his employer's barge moored in navigable waters while assisting in a loading operation. The employer was insured solely under the Federal Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Act. Instead of pursuing the remedy available under the federal act, petitioner brought the common law action authorized by state workmen's compensation legislation in the state courts. The Oregon Supreme Court affirmed judgment for the employer on the ground that the injury was covered exclusively by the federal act. On certiorari to the United States Supreme Court, held, reversed per curiam, two justices dissenting. The injury was incurred within the …


Admiralty - Warranty Of Seaworthiness - Longshoreman's Choice Of Remedies, Richard E. Young Mar 1959

Admiralty - Warranty Of Seaworthiness - Longshoreman's Choice Of Remedies, Richard E. Young

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, employee of a stevedoring company hired to unload defendant's ship, was injured while operating a defective chisel truck in the ship's hold. The truck belonged to and was operated, maintained and brought aboard by the stevedoring company, the ship having no similar equipment. Furthermore, the stevedoring company was assumed to be aware of the defect prior to the accident. Plaintiff brought suit for damages against the shipowner alleging unseaworthiness, and the shipowner impleaded the stevedoring company as a third-party defendant. On motion by the defendants for summary judgment, held, motion denied. The shipowner is liable on an absolute …


Admiralty - Death On The High Seas Act - Effect On Workmen's Compensation Recoveries, Thomas E. Kauper S.Ed. Mar 1959

Admiralty - Death On The High Seas Act - Effect On Workmen's Compensation Recoveries, Thomas E. Kauper S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Decedent, aboard an airliner in his capacity as flight service supervisor, was killed when the plane crashed into the Pacific. Respondent airlines, decedent's employer, filed an application with the California Industrial Accident Commission to determine its liability under the California Workmen's Compensation Act. The commission awarded decedent's widow a death benefit despite the widow's objection to the commission's jurisdiction. Prior to the award the widow as administratrix of decedent's estate initiated this action under the Death on the High Seas Act (DHSA) in admiralty. On motion for summary judgment in respondent's favor, held, motion granted. DHSA is applicable to …


Atoms And The Law, E. Blythe Stason, Samuel D. Estep, William J. Pierce Jan 1959

Atoms And The Law, E. Blythe Stason, Samuel D. Estep, William J. Pierce

Books

Early in 1951 a group of interested members of the faculty of The University of Michigan Law School conceived the idea of a research project, the purpose of which would be to investigate the principal unique legal problems being created and likely to be created in the future by peaceful uses of atomic energy. The group planned the preparation and publication of a series of manuscripts which might ultimately emerge as one or more printed volumes dealing with the legal problems affecting this new form of energy. Many phases of the subject were scrutinized, including the rule-making and licensing powers …


The Michigan Supreme Court - An Analysis Of Recent Decisions, Frederic F. Brace Jr., James A. Park Jan 1959

The Michigan Supreme Court - An Analysis Of Recent Decisions, Frederic F. Brace Jr., James A. Park

Michigan Law Review

It is the purpose of this comment to attempt to determine and evaluate just what the court's role has been. Attention will be directed to selected areas of non-statutory and statutory law, with specific emphasis placed upon the areas of contributory negligence and workmen's compensation.


Workmen's Compensation - Recreation Injury, David Shute S.Ed. Nov 1958

Workmen's Compensation - Recreation Injury, David Shute S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Decedent was employed by an automobile dealer as assistant manager of the service department. The dealer's custom was to hold a monthly business meeting of the staff of major departments after working hours and without extra compensation. One such meeting was scheduled to be held at a city hotel. At the suggestion of an employee that it would be more pleasant to hold the meeting at a nearby lake, the employer changed the meeting place to a summer cottage owned by him. It was understood by those attending that there would be an opportunity for swimming and boating. Decedent was …


Workmen's Compensation - Benefits - Exclusiveness Of Schedule Provision, Mark Shaevsky Mar 1958

Workmen's Compensation - Benefits - Exclusiveness Of Schedule Provision, Mark Shaevsky

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff received benefits under the schedule provisions of the Michigan workmen's compensation statute for amputation of four fingers and one leg. Upon the expiration of payments the hearing officer awarded additional recovery for plaintiff's total disability resulting from the amputation. After subtracting compensation received for the specified losses, the appeal board affirmed. On appeal to the supreme court, held, affirmed by an equally divided court. The legislature intended the schedule provisions to be irreducible minimum awards, not exclusive compensation. Curtis v. Hayes Wheel Co., which construed schedule allowances as barring further recovery for total and permanent disability, is …


Workmen's Compensation - Compensability Of Injuries Resulting From Physical Examinations, Michael M. Lyons Feb 1958

Workmen's Compensation - Compensability Of Injuries Resulting From Physical Examinations, Michael M. Lyons

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a dairy worker, suffered an infection in her left arm as a result of submitting to a Wassermann test as ordered by her employer. The county board of health required dairy workers to take the test as a condition of their employment and the order was issued in pursuance thereof. Plaintiff filed a claim for compensation under the state Workmen's Compensation Act which was rejected by her employer but sustained upon a hearing before the state commission. Defendant's exceptions were overruled on appeal to the superior court. On appeal to the supreme court, held, reversed. The injury did …


Workmen's Compensation - Federal Employers' Liability Act - Basis Of Liability Not Common Law Negligence, Robert L. Knauss S.Ed. Nov 1957

Workmen's Compensation - Federal Employers' Liability Act - Basis Of Liability Not Common Law Negligence, Robert L. Knauss S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Petitioner, a laborer in a railroad section gang, was assigned to burn weeds near a railroad track. He was injured when he fell into a culvert as he was trying to escape from smoke and flames which had been fanned by a passing train. A jury in the Circuit Court of St. Louis awarded damages under the Federal Employers' Liability Act (FELA). The Supreme Court of Missouri reversed upon the ground that the evidence was not sufficient to support a finding of the railroad's liability, and the case should not have been allowed to go to a jury. On certiorari …