Workers' Compensation Law Commons^™

Bouford V. Bath Iron Works: Defining Double Recovery Under State And Federal Compensation Laws For Maritime Workers, John Arthur Mccauley

Maine Law Review

In Bouford v. Bath Iron Works Corp., the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, sitting as the Law Court, held that an employer is not entitled to credit disability payments made under the federal Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act (LHWCA) against a subsequent obligation to pay a permanent impairment award for the same injury under the Maine Workers' Compensation Act (MWCA). While adhering to the principle against "double recovery" by employees in cases in which there is concurrent jurisdiction of federal and state compensation schemes, the Law Court reasoned that state permanent impairment awards are not duplicative of LHWCA disability benefits …

Dissell V. Trans World Airlines: Constitutional Limitations On The Workers' Compensation Commission's Subject-Matter Jurisdiction, Patricia A. Nelson-Reade

Maine Law Review

To rule upon a workers' compensation claim, the Maine Workers' Compensation Commission must determine that it has both personal and subject-matter jurisdiction. Personal jurisdiction is determined by applying Maine's "long-arm" statute. Subject-matter jurisdiction derives from the Commission's status as an administrative agency authorized to administer the Maine Workers' Compensation Act (MWCA). Although subject-matter determination generally involves a choice-of-law issue, in a workers' compensation claim having extraterritorial aspects, the Commission is not free to apply the compensation acts of other states that have contacts with the claim. Rather, the Commission may determine only if it has authority under the MWCA to …

Fifty More Years Of Ineffable Quo? Workers’ Compensation And The Right To Personal Security, Michael C. Duff

All Faculty Scholarship

During the days of Covid-19, OSHA has been much in the news as contests surface over the boundaries of what risks of workplace harm are properly regulable by the federal government. Yet the original statute that created OSHA—the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970—was not exclusively concerned with front-end regulation of workplace harm. Just over fifty years ago, the same Act mandated an investigation of the American workers’ compensation system, which consists of a loose network of independent state workers’ compensation systems. The National Commission created by the Act to carry out the investigation issued a report of its …

What Covid-19 Laid Bare: Adventures In Workers’ Compensation Causation, Michael C. Duff

All Faculty Scholarship

This essay performs a close analysis of workers’ compensation coverage of COVID-19 and arrives at the conclusion that it should not be “impossible” to prove in a legal sense that an employee’s COVID-19 was caused by work. Scientific proof is not the same as legal proof: workers’ compensation law has never required that claims must be supported by irrefutable scientific proof of workplace causation. Yet repeatedly one heard this suggestion during public discussion on workers’ compensation coverage of employees.

Still, there is good evidence that even when workers’ compensation undisputedly covers work-related disease employers seldom pay benefits (and states do …

The Functional Operation Of Workers’ Compensation Covid Presumptions, Michael C. Duff

All Faculty Scholarship

During 2020, a number of U.S. states implemented workers' compensation COVID-19 presumptions. This short informal paper defines and explains legal presumptions generally and then discusses the workers' compensation presumptions. The paper contends that at this juncture it is not clear whether states intended to enact "Thayer-Wigmore" or "Morgan" presumptions; but if they operate as Thayer-Wigmore presumptions they will not do workers' compensation claimants much good in the context of non-jury proceedings presided over by administrative law judges.

Consortium And Workers’ Compensation: The Demolition Of Consortium, Michael Green, David M. Layman

Louisiana Law Review

The article discusses issues on spousal consortium claims and workers' compensation in the U.S., including the aspects of compensation for accidental injuries and tort claims.

All The World’S A Platform?: Some Remarks On 'Marketplace Platform' Employment Laws, Michael C. Duff

All Faculty Scholarship

This paper addresses the enactment of marketplace platform laws, which have arisen as a remarkable feature of the "gig" economy in recent years. A marketplace platform law decides the question of whether an individual worker is an independent contractor or an employee — an ongoing controversy in all employment law, including workers’ compensation law — by emphasizing factors other than those normally considered in traditional legal analyses. As of this writing, seven states appear to have enacted marketplace platform laws.

In short, marketplace platform laws — developed substantially and lobbied aggressively by the company Handy, Inc. — make it much …

Center For Progressive Reform Report: Protecting Workers In A Pandemic--What The Federal Government Should Be Doing, Thomas Mcgarity, Michael C. Duff, Sidney A. Shapiro

All Faculty Scholarship

The "re-opening" of the American economy while the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is still circulating puts workers at heightened risk of contracting the deadly virus. In some blue-collar industries, the risk is particularly acute because of the inherent nature of the work itself and of the workplaces in which it is conducted. And the risk, for a variety of reasons, falls disproportionately on people of color and low-income workers. With governors stay-at-home orders and other pandemic safety restrictions, Center for Progressive Reform Member Scholars Thomas McGarity, Michael Duff, and Sidney Shapiro examine the federal government's many missed opportunities to stem …

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Ptsd) Coverage And Other Expanding Benefit Changes In The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Marketplace: Academic Legal Perspective, Michael C. Duff

All Faculty Scholarship

This paper discusses the increased use of causation presumptions in workers' compensation cases involving firefighters and other first responders. It also considers increasing workers' compensation coverage of post traumatic stress disorder with respect to those same categories of workers. The paper discusses how workers' compensation coverage of certain conditions tends to parallel the growth of potential tort liability, observes that disease presumptions were a feature of early 20th century workers' compensation statutes (and so are not new), and argues that recognition of workers' compensation "mental-mental" claims has been consistent with "zone of danger" expansion of the negligent infliction of emotional …

Asymmetric Effects On Fatality Rates Of Changes In Workers' Compensation Laws, W. Kip Viscusi, Elissa Philip Gentry

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

With irreversible investments in safety, changes in workers' compensation laws should affect employer incentives asymmetrically: increases in workers' compen- sation generosity should cause employers to invest more in safety, but comparable decreases might not cause them to disinvest in existing precautionary programs or equipment. Although maximum weekly benefits caps have been fairly stable, state laws have expanded or restricted workers' compensation on multiple other dimensions. State laws may impose new requirements regarding burdens of proof, access to medical care, and the duration of benefits. This article estimates the effect of changes in these more comprehensive measures of workers' compensa- tion …

Twelve Injured Men: Why Injured Jurors Should Not Receive Workers' Compensation Coverage From The Courts, Corey Baron

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

This Note argues that the legislature should add a provision to New York’s Workers’ Compensation Act that expressly precludes jurors from coverage. Such a provision would comport with the policy underlying the statute, the statute’s structure, and the statute’s language. Moreover, that legislative provision would prevent the court from wasting the considerable time and expense of grappling with other courts’ inconsistent interpretations of workers’ compensation statutes and their underlying policies. First, Part I of this Note provides an overview of the workers’ compensation law and explores the policies underlying the advent of workers’ compensation statutes. Then, Part II surveys …

The Grand Maple Dream: Fulfilled, Fading Or Failed?: Filipino Women Nurses In Manitoba And Their Struggles Against Harassment And Discrimination, Emily Sanchez Salcedo

Center for Business Research and Development

The Philippines is a tiny archipelago in Southeast Asia with over one hundred million people wallowing in a third world economy kept afloat for decades by Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW). In 2017, OFWs collectively sent home cash remittances amounting over $28 billion—roughly $645 million came from Filipinos in Canada. This amount is the eleventh biggest contributor to the Philippine economy (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, 2018).

On the other hand, the Philippines has become the top country for new immigrants to Canada in recent years, surpassing India and China (Friesen, 2018). According to the 2016 Census of Population Program, there are …

The Workplace Injunction: An Emerging But Imperfect Weapon In The Fight Against Domestic Violence, Michael D. Moberly

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Roy V. Bath Iron Works: Three Different Perspectives On An Unfortunate Situation, Erik Black

Maine Law Review

Joseph Roy was an employee of Bath Iron Works (BIW) who suffered work-related injuries to his lower back in 1987 and to his neck in 1994 In 2005, Roy filed a petition for review of his workers' compensation benefits and sought, among other benefits, total incapacity benefits because his neck injury had worsened. A hearing officer from the Workers' Compensation Board found that Roy's work-related injuries had totally incapacitated him, but denied Roy total incapacity benefits after March 6, 2006, because a non-work-related liver condition had also caused him to become totally incapacitated. Roy appealed the decision to the Maine …

Finalizing The Grand Compromise In West Virginia Workers' Compensation: Repeal Deliberate Intent, Charles R. Russell

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Nurturing Wings Or Clipping Them Off: The Philippine Approach To Female Labor Migration And A Potentially Redeeming Role For The Commission On Human Rights, Emily Sanchez Salcedo

Center for Business Research and Development

The large-scale migration of Filipino workers started in the 1970’s as inadequate local employment and livelihood opportunities pointed to overseas opportunities in the booming economy of oil-rich countries in the Middle East. Though initially dominated by male construction workers and seafarers, female migrant workers, mostly in the health care professions, in domestic services and in the entertainment industry, followed suit and, in the most recent available statistical report, have even slightly outnumbered the men. As of the end of 2014, 50.43% of the 2.32 million overseas Filipino workers are women. Collectively, these overseas workers sent about 27 billion dollars in …

Ohio Supreme Court Symposium

Akron Law Review

During the 1981-1982 term the Ohio Supreme Court rendered 250 written opinions on a wide range of topics from wiretapping to the liability of landlords for injuries. In several cases, individuals gained significant legal rights in dealing with business and others. In addition, there were some significant changes in the law governing municipal sovereignty and immunity. This symposium will not attempt to cover all decisions of the Ohio Supreme Court, but rather to highlight some of the major decisions which affect Ohioans.

Gradually Developed Disabilities: A Dilemma For Workers' Compensation, M. Thomas Arnold

Akron Law Review

This article will examine some of these problems and attempt to make a few modest suggestions as to the direction future consideration of the compensability of gradually developed disabilities should take.

Exception To The Going And Coming Rule: Special Hazard Or Risk, Karen M. Holmes

Akron Law Review

In Littlefield v. Pillsbury Co., the Ohio Supreme Court specifically adopted the "special hazard or risk" exception to the "going and coming" rule. This exception extends workers' compensation coverage to claims for injuries sustained in accidents occurring outside an employer's premises, before or after work, if the injury occurs because of a hazard created by the employment.

Georgia's Workers' Compensation Law: Are Limitations On Death Benefits To Foreign, Nonresident Dependents Constitutional? Barge-Wagener Constr. Co. V. Morales, Peter J. Diskin

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Remedy For The Intentional Torts Of A Workmen's Compensation Carrier, Everett E. Demler

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Mccarty V. Workman's Compensation Appeals Board, Harry M. Caldwell

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Current Trends In Workers' Compensation, Irvin Stander

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

Workers Compensation: Presenting Medical Evidence In Heart Cases, Gerald J. Haas, Lowell A. Reed Jr, Irvin Stander

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

Workers' Compensation: Alternatives Are Limited, Irvin Stander

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

Worker's Compensation Corner - Summary Termination Of Benefits: An Analysis Of The Baksalary Case, Irvin Stander

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

Beyond Idle Connections: Aoe/Coe - Pervasive Concepts In Worker's Compensation, Fred J. Knez

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Wengler V. Druggists' Mutual Insurance Company: No More Skirting The Issue Of Sex Discrimination In Workers' Compensation Dependency Statutes, Teresa A. Saggese, Lawson A. Cox Ii

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

How Exclusive Is The Workers' Compensation Exclusive Remedy? 2010 Amendments To Oklahoma Workers' Compensation Statute Shoot Down Parret, Matthew K. Brown

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Fool Me Once, Shame On Me; Fool Me Again And You’Re Gonna Pay For It: An Analysis Of Medicare’S New Reporting Requirements For Primary Payers And The Stiff Penalties Associated With Noncompliance, Monica A. Stahly

Law Student Publications

This article discusses the new requirements and the issues that currently face insurers, claimants, and attorneys in cases involving Medicare-eligible beneficiaries.