Workers' Compensation Law Commons^™

Hiv As An Occupational Disease: Expanding Traditional Workers' Compensation Coverage, Nikita Williams

Vanderbilt Law Review

Since the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome ("AIDS") was first identified in 1981, this disease has had far-reaching social and economic consequences across the country. One of the most profound effects of the AIDS epidemic can be seen in the public health care system. While infection control measures have long been in place to reduce transmission of the disease in the health care setting, in the years following the initial discovery of AIDS, health care workers ("HCWs") were particularly concerned about the possibility of contracting the lethal disease from their patients. Furthermore, although the risk of transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus …

An Analysis Of The Legal, Social, And Political Issues Raised By Asbestos Litigation, John P. Burns, G. Edward Cassady, Iii, Kenneth B. Cole, Jr., Timothy R. Dodson, Philip E. Holladay, Jr., Paul C. Ney, Jr., Drew T. Parobek, Kimberly Payne, D. Blaine Sanders, L. D. Simmons, Ii, Charles D. Maguire, Jr. Special Project Editor, Laurin Blumenthal Associate Special Project Editor

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Special Project examines the most important issues of the asbestos problem and advocates a congressional solution (1) to relieve the courts of the thousands of present and potential asbestos cases, (2) to protect future claimants' rights to adequate compensation, and (3) to provide for equitable participation by all responsible parties, which, in addition to asbestos manufacturers,include the federal government, insurance companies, and the tobacco industry. The first six parts of the Special Project examine the various issues of asbestos litigation: theories of liability in products liability suits against asbestos manufacturers, causation,defenses, statutory limitations on actions, collateral estoppel, and punitive …

The Causation Issue In Workers'compensation Mental Disability Cases: An Analysis, Solutions, And A Perspective, Lawrence Joseph

Vanderbilt Law Review

Cases under workers' compensation systems that concern mental disabilities present special problems in the determination of causation. In this Article Mr. Joseph argues that the complexities inherent in a decision whether a mental disability has arisen out of employment force administrative agencies and courts in these cases to engage in normative evaluative inquiries. These inquiries, according to Mr. Joseph, result in findings that potentially frustrate the underlying compromise policy of workers' compensation systems; these evaluative decisions create classes of claimants that may be under or over inclusive. Mr. Joseph describes several possible solutions to this problem and concludes by reviewing …

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Injunctions--Contempt Power--Citation Proper Against Nonparty Who Violates Court Order in School Desegregation Case

Whether an injunction or other order binds one not a party to the underlying suit or proceeding so that he may be held in contempt for violation is a question that always has troubled the courts. Some early cases purported to announce a sweeping and apparently absolute rule--that an injunction or other order does not bind nonparties. The principle underlying this rule is that due process forbids a court to adjudicate the legal rights and relationships of a person who has not had the opportunity to be …

Mental And Nervous Injury In Workmen's Compensation, Arthur Larson

Vanderbilt Law Review

"[H]ow could it be real when. . .it was purely mental?" This poignant judicial cry out of the past, which I occasionally quote to put down my psychiatrist friends, contains the clue to almost all of the trouble that has attended the development of workmen's compensation law related to mental and nervous injuries. This equation of "mental" with "unreal," or imaginary, or phoney, is so ingrained that it has achieved a firm place in our idiomatic language. Who has not at some time, in dismissing a physical complaint of some suffering friend or relative, airily waved the complaint aside by …

Dependency In Workmen's Compensation:Letting The Expectations And Conduct Of Affected Parties Play A More Significant Role, Clifford Davis

Vanderbilt Law Review

The death benefits provided by compensation legislation must satisfy two tests. First, the benefits should cover the net economic loss resulting from occupational death.' Second, those survivors who could have expected to benefit from future earnings ought to share appropriately in the sum total of the benefits provided. This article focuses primarily upon this second question. The inadequacy of available benefits, however, may require the exclusion as beneficiaries of some survivors with expectations of support in order more adequately to provide for others. Thus, inadequacy of total benefits will be considered when it is relevant to the determination of who …

Workmen's Compensation For Radiation Injuries In Tennessee, E. Blythe Stason

Vanderbilt Law Review

We lay to one side, so far as this article is concerned, the impact of the atom on general tort liability in Tennessee. Such important aspects of the total subject as strict liability, nuisance actions, third-party liability, and joint and several liability we reserve for another occasion. Hopefully radiation will be so well regulated that the injuries to outsiders will be few and far between. We also lay to one side possible injuries in Tennessee resulting from the extensive operations of the federal government in the nuclear field. Such injuries receive special handling either by federal agencies (e.g.,the Bureau of …

Some Recent Developments In The Substantive Law Of Workmen's Compensation, Wex S. Malone

Vanderbilt Law Review

After setting out the factors which make for change in the compensation structure, the author goes on to discuss three problem areas in which that change is clearly visible: distinguishing between employees and independent contractors, determining tho rights of a borrowed employee, and deciding whether an accident arose out of the employment. He concludes that the law of workmen's compensation is developing in consonance with the social philosophy which underlies it.

Covered Employment And Compensable Injury Concepts In Tennessee, Robert N. Covington

Vanderbilt Law Review

This article surveys the existing law of Tennessee applicable to the problems of determining what is covered employment and what constitutes a compensable injury. The survey indicates no radical differences between the law of Tennessee and that of most American jurisdictions,although there are a few troublesome problems in particular areas, such as the "Act of God" and "positional risk" cases.

Trial Practice And Tactics In Employee Injury Cases -- The Plaintiff's Viewpoint, Benjamin Marcus

Vanderbilt Law Review

The author, a practitioner with extensive experience in the workmen's compensation field, sets out a number of "do's" and "don't's" for the successful representation of plaintiffs in employee injury cases, especially with regard to the handling of medical evidence. He also points out defects in the existing law, and calls upon the bar to fulfill its social role by supporting remedial legislation.

The General Structure Of Law Applicable To Employee Injury And Death, Ben F. Small

Vanderbilt Law Review

The author here shows how the failure of the common law to cope with the problem of industrial injury led to the passage of workmen's compensation legislation. After examining the basic structure of that legislation, he turns to an extensive discussion of the problems of federal preemption and the interrelation of workmen's compensation with other wage loss programs (including a comparison with the British system). In conclusion, he catalogues the criticisms of the present system, and suggests that the area is ripe for further action by the federal government.

Workmen's Compensation And The Social Security Disability Program: A Contrast, Arthur Abraham, Irwin Wolkstein

Vanderbilt Law Review

Recently, concern has been expressed that the federal disability insurance program may expand and engulf state workmen's compensation systems; legislation aimed at eliminating this possibility has been introduced in Congress. The authors attempt in this article to shed some light on the controversy; after describing the various disability protection programs, they turn to a detailed discussion of the overlap, interrelationship, and differences between the protection offered by the federal social security and state workmen's compensation programs. They conclude by discussing the arguments which can be made both for and against an "offset" provision in the social security law.

Trial Practice And Tactics In Employee Injury Cases -- The Defendant's Viewpoint, Don M. Jackson

Vanderbilt Law Review

Due to the liberal construction that courts give workmen's compensation statutes, the employer has heavy odds against him in most cases. Nevertheless, the author concludes, defense counsel should not despair. Hard work and proper preparation will still yield handsome rewards, especially in those cases in which the principal issue is the nature and extent of disability.

The Law Of Workmen's Compensation And Employers' Liability: A Selected List Of Materials 1950-1963, Cyril L. Mcdermott

Vanderbilt Law Review

Professor McDermott has compiled in this article a comprehensive reference guide to the materials of workmen's compensation law. In addition to general works, current specialized sources are arranged by jurisdiction for easy reference.

Workmen's Compensation -- 1962 Tennessee Survey, J. Gilmer Bowman, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

The Tennessee Supreme Court was again faced with a substantial number of workmen's compensation cases during the current survey year. Fewer of the cases than usual were concerned primarily with whether the decision below was supported by sufficient evidence. However, a number of them were illustrative of aspects of the statutory requirement that an employee suffer an injury by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment in order to be eligible for workmen's compensation benefits.

Agency -- 1961 Tennessee Survey (Ii), W. Harold Bigham

Vanderbilt Law Review

I. Employee and Independent Contractor Distinguished

During the abbreviated survey period there were no significant or momentous decisions by Tennessee courts--state or federal--involving agency principles. Indeed the only state appellate case properly to be considered here involved the rather pedestrian question of whether a petitioner for workmen's compensation benefits was, vis-a-vis the defendant prime contractor, an employee or an independent contractor.

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II. Misrepresentations of Agent

Butts v. Colonial Refrigerated Transportation, Inc. is merely another example of the Sixth Circuit's unfortunate proclivity for writing per curiam affirmances. It is well-nigh impossible to determine whether the liability of the defendant which …

Workmen's Compensation -- 1961 Tennessee Survey (Ii), J. Gilmer Bowman, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Since the workmen's compensation statute was designed to provide benefits for an employee's work-connected injury or death, it necessarily follows that there must have been an employment relationship within the coverage of the statute and that the person or persons claiming the benefits must be within the class entitled to do so. The application of this basic premise, which on its face appears simple enough, was involved in three cases before the Tennessee Supreme Court during the survey period.

Bowling v. Whitley was a workmen's compensation suit brought by an employee against his immediate employer, a subcontractor, as well as …

Workmen's Compensation -- 1961 Tennessee Survey, J. Gilmer Bowman, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Two bills amending the Workmen's Compensation Law' were enacted during the survey year. The first placed a limit of $12,500 on compensation payable for any permanent partial injury, not limited to those set forth in the schedule. It also added the following self-explanatory sentence to the first paragraph of section 50-1027, Tennessee Code Annotated: To receive benefits from the Second Injury Fund, the injured employee must be the employee of an employer who has properly insured his workmen's compensation liability or has qualified to operate under the Tennessee Workmen's Compensation Law as a self-insurer. The second amendment changed the definition …

Labor Law And Workmen's Compensation -- 1960 Tennessee Survey, Paul H. Sanders, J. Gilmer Bowman, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Labor law is concerned with the rules governing the various phases of the employment relation and the activities of employers and labor organizations vis-a-vis such phases. Sometimes such rules are embodied in criminal law or tort law. If the substance of the alleged crime or tort is not directed toward or used in some respects as a regulation of employment or labor relations, it is excluded by the above definition even though some "labor" aspect is prominently identified with the case. For example, during the survey period the Supreme Court of Tennessee decided the case of Smith v. State, affirming …

Remaining Tort Liability Of Employers And Third Parties Under Workmen's Compensation Statutes, Ben F. Loeb, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Workmen's compensation is a mechanism designed to provide cash benefits to employees to recompense for loss of wages due to injuries sustained in work-connected activities. Theoretically, the cost of the program is charged to the consumer by increasing the price of goods and services sold to the public. An employee, covered by a compensation act, is entitled to payments if he is injured by an accident arising out of and in the course of his employment; and the fact that such employee was at fault or guilty of negligence himself is normally of no consequence.

Compensation benefits, in contrast to …

Labor Law And Workmen's Compensation--1959 Tennessee Survey, Paul H. Sanders, J. Gilmer Bowman, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

What is the meaning of the term "actual cash value" in the standard fire policy? The middle section of the court of appeals, following a prior Tennessee case and the weight of authority, held that the phrase is synonomous with "market value" only where the goods are readily replaceable in a current market. Where there is no market, or where the market value is inadequate to properly indemnify the insured, "actual cash value" means the "'value to the owner' or the loss he suffers in being deprived of the goods." Since the goods involved in this case were personal effects, …

Workmen's Compensation And Radiation Injury, Gerald L. Hutton

Vanderbilt Law Review

The utilitarian and research value of radioisotopes, x-ray and fluoroscopic devices, cyclotrons and other particle accelerators, nuclear reactors, and other materials or devices emitting ionizing radiation is unquestioned. Ionizing radiation, however, can prove harmful as well as beneficial depending upon the care which is exercised in its use. Numerous cases of x-ray and radium injuries are reported in the literature, such injuries dating from 1896 when Roentgen first announced the discovery of x-rays. The most publicized cases of radiation injury are those occurring in the radium poisoning or "dial painters" cases in the 1920's. Unlike most noxious materials encountered in …

Labor Law And Workmen's Compensation -- 1958 Tennessee Survey, Paul H. Sanders, J. Gilmer Bowman, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

The federal Labor-Management Relations (Taft-Hartley) Act sets forth as a basic right the freedom of choice of covered employees with respect to unionization and the establishment of collective bargaining. While protecting certain concerted activities, this statute makes it unlawful, among other things, for a labor organization to strike or picket for certain proscribed objectives. In this area of regulation (i.e., the purposes of labor combinations and economic pressures) the federal machinery is exclusive to the extent that the necessary relationship to interstate commerce is present and exceptions to coverage are inapplicable. While the Supreme Court of the United States has …

Book Review, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

The National Probation and Parole Association has been working for over 35 years to improve the administration of justice and in the publication of "Guides for Sentencing" it has provided one of its most important services to judges who are charged with the administration of criminal justice and to juvenile and domestic relations courts. The book is the first of a series of practical manuals for all of the above named courts and it is the result of the combined labors of 37 specially selected United States, state and juvenile judges for a period of about five years. Bolitha J. …

Recent Cases, Law Review Staff

Vanderbilt Law Review

Recent Cases

Conflict of Laws--Jurisdiction--Assumption of Personal Jurisdiction over Non-Resident Insurer on the basis of a Single Insurance Contract

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Constitutional Law--Taxation--Tax Immunity of Federal Government not Infringed by Local Taxes upon Possession of Government Property

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Evidence--Hearsay--Utterance of Employee under Emotional Stress Admissible to Establish Scope of Employment and Render Employer Vicariously Liable

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Insurance--Automobile--Duplicating Recoveries allowed under Liability and Medical Payment Clauses of Automobile Liability Insurance Policy

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Insurance--Business Indemnity--Radiation Decontamination Expenses not Recoverable under a Business Interruption Clause

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Insurance--Life--Variable Annuity Contracts not Subject to Regulation by Securities and Exchange Commission

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Physicians--Unprofessional Conduct--Willful Evasion of Federal …

Labor Law And Workmen's Compensation -- 1957 Tennessee Survey, Paul H. Sanders, James G. Bowman Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

The decisions of Tennessee appellate courts during the survey period have dealt extensively with the major area of controversy in current labor relations law--federal preemption.' The number of Tennessee decisions handed down which relate to injunctions restraining directly or indirectly the activities of labor organizations exceeds that in any recent comparable period. Clarification of the law applicable in the courts of the state to such activities, however, has not been achieved through these decisions. Two were reversed subsequently without opinion by the Supreme Court of the United States, and these two reversals, in turn, present serious questions as to the …

Labor Law And Workmen's Compensation -- 1956 Tennessee Survey, Paul H. Sanders, James G. Bowman, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Labor Law

Inducing Breach of Contract: Howard v. Haven' was the only case during the survey period which presented a legal problem relating to the activities of a labor organization. In this case an electrical contractor sought an injunction and damages because of the acts of a local labor union, its business agent, and other named defendants in preventing the plaintiff from carrying out a hospital construction contract. On the trial of the case the determinative issue became whether or not the defendants brought about a breach of the contract which the complainant claimed to have had with the general …

Labor Law And Workmen's Compensation -- 1955 Tennessee Survey, Paul H. Sanders, James G. Bowman Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

In Stokeley Van Camp, Inc. v. United Packinghouse Workers of America, the company and the union had entered into a collective bargaining agreement under which there were to be no strikes or lock-outs pending the use of the grievance and arbitration procedures provided in the contract. The chancellor enjoined members of the union from participating in a strike, and in such incidental activities as mass picketing, and threatening and intimidating persons seeking to enter and leave the plant. The company's bill and affidavits indicated the existence of a strike with mass picketing and threats of violence. The union did not …

Some Problems Arising Under The Workmen's Compensation Law Of Tennessee, R. Wayne Estes, Doris A. Dudney

Vanderbilt Law Review

Although there are many problems arising under the Workmen's Compensation Laws of Tennessee, it appears that here, as elsewhere, the most difficult questions are those arising out of the interpretation of the phrases "injury by accident," "arising out of," and "in the course of," employment. The present study is therefore limited to a consideration of these three particular problems, and does not purport to be a comprehensive treatment of the entire topic of Workmen's Compensation Law in Tennessee.

Federal Standards In Unemployment Insurance, Frank T. De Vyver

Vanderbilt Law Review

Some of the most vigorous arguments during meetings of the Federal Advisory Council of the Bureau of Employment Security have concerned federal standards.' "Federalizers" was the name attached by industry groups to those advocating change in existing standards, and labor groups strongly denounced industry members of the Council for insisting that existing federal standards are sufficient. Nor did industry members hesitate to condemn the Secretary of Labor, the Director of the Bureau of Employment Security and other Bureau employees for suggesting legislation to strengthen federal standards. Discussions of the subject at Council meetings were never free from emotion. Yet an …