Interiano-Lopez v. Tyson Fresh Meats, a case from the Nebraska Supreme Court, involved a claimant who was living in Iowa and working at a meat packing plant in Nebraska.  He had various responsibilities as a result of his employment, but one of his jobs was cutting open the stomachs of cows.  This part of the cow is known as the paunch in the meat packing industry, and the contents of the stomach are supposed to dump out on the factory floor as part of the dump paunch line of production.

death-line-1239945In October 2013, claimant was working on the line with a trainee, and allegedly failed to properly hanging the meat on meat hooks. As a result, pieces of meat kept falling off the hooks as they passed buy the dump paunch line.  In order to cut the paunch, claimant had to lift each piece of meat back onto the hooks in a proper manner, and his arms were getting very tired. Continue reading

According to a recent news feature from the Boston Globe, a construction worker was injured when he fell approximately three stories from scaffolding at a jobsite in the Longwood Medical area in Boston.

scaffold-1-1543984One witness said she was in the area, as she also worked in the neighborhood, when she heard the worker falling more than 30 feet.  She was he was screaming the entire way down and hit other scaffolding on his way, crashing down to the ground.  Once he hit the ground, other members of he crew came running over to help him and called emergency personnel to the scene. Continue reading

In every state, there is some type of workers’ compensation statute.  In Massachusetts, there is the Workers’ Compensation Act (WCA). This law sets out the requirements for workers’ compensation in most jobs. There are other statutes that apply for certain jobs, like firefighters, and, in some cases, there are federal statutes that apply.  For example, if a railroad employee is injured on the job, this falls under the Federal Railroad Safety Act (FRSA).

oil-platform-1336513In Baker v. DOWCP, the question is whether the state workers’ compensation act applies or the federal Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (LHWCA) or the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA). Continue reading

In Hillmann v. City of Chicago, a workers’ compensation case for the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, claimant had begun working for the city’s parks district in 1973.  After he worked in the department for about five years, he took a different job for the city as a truck driver in the sanitation department.  It is fairly common for state, local, and even federal government workers to move back and forth between various departments during the years in which they are employed.   The reason for this is because it is much easier to get a government job once you already have one, since many agencies will look internally to fill openings before looking at the general public.

workerexcavatorAbout 11 years after he first started working for city, he started to suffer from cervical radiculopathy, and doctors determined that his condition was work related.  This is essentially a condition of the spine that causes pain in the back and arms and legs and other parts of the body. Continue reading

In Smith v. Delaware North Cos., claimant was injured on the job when she slipped on the floor while she was working as a cook at Orioles Park at Camden Yards, which is the home of the Baltimore Orioles.  When she slipped and fell, she landed on her knee.  Her knee was hurting for a few weeks following her workplace slip-and-fall and was referred to a doctor to have an MRI performed.

baseball-serie-1-1555536When doctors took the MRI, they diagnosed her with a tear in the posterior horn of her medical meniscus.  This is one of the more common knee injuries and is often suffered by athletes in addition to tearing of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).  They also determined that she had arthritis in her knee.  Arthritis is very common following injuries to the knee, because the lack of cartilage can result in bone-to-bone contact, which causes calcification and bone spurs to form, which causes bone pain. Continue reading

In Ex Parte Lincare Inc., a supervisor and an employee were both working for the same company.  In June 2016, employee submitted a letter of resignation to her supervisor.  She said the reason she resigned from the company was because her supervisor had created a hostile work environment. She also claimed she had previously told the company about her supervisor’s actions, and the company had not taken any steps to mediate the situation.

workShe then claimed that once she gave her letter of resignation to her supervisor, the supervisor physically assaulted her by choking her, breaking two fingers on one hand and her hurting her thumb and elbow on the opposite arm.  At this point, the police were called the job site. Continue reading

In Cornelison v. TIG Insurance, claimant injured his back in 1996, while he was shoveling dirt at work.  He underwent back surgery after his accident, but it did not help resolve his pain and medical conditions. He filed for workers’ compensation benefits, and the board determined he was permanently and totally disabled under a state law doctrine known as the odd-lot doctrine. His date of disability was 2001.

wrist-pain-3-1411523Claimant did not contest this PTD rating, and he also began to receive to Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits.  While it is okay for an injured worker to receive SSDI benefits in addition to his workers’ compensation benefits, he will be required to offset the payments by reimbursing the workers’ compensation insurance company, so as to avoid what is known as a double recovery. Continue reading

According to a recent news feature from CBS Boston, a construction worker was severely injured when he got his foot trapped in a cement mixer in Newton, Massachusetts.  Co-workers say that the injured employee was working around the machine when he slipped and his leg got trapped.

scaffold-1-1543984This was not a cement truck, but a smaller cement mixing machine that features a large screw or auger inside to mix the cement.  It was this auger that trapped his leg and was crushing it when another worker heard the screams and shut down the machine.  Continue reading

Working at any construction or demolition site is dangerous work.  Every year, many workers are injured and killed on construction sites from accidents that involved being crushed by falling debris or materials, being run over by large construction equipment, being injured by power equipment, and other similar accidents.  When dealing with construction projects on skyscrapers, we see other types of serious accidents, including workers falling to their deaths from extreme heights.

helicopter-1450413According to a recent news feature from the Los Angeles Times, a worker was injured in a crane accident 270 feet above the ground and had to be rescued by a hoist from a helicopter. Witnesses say the 50-year-old crane operator suffered a serious injury on the job that made it impossible for him to climb down the ladder to safety and to get medical attention. Continue reading

In Velecela v. All Habitat Servs., LLC, a case from the Connecticut Supreme Court, the claimant’s husband was working for employer.  His employment included repairing all terrain vehicles (ATVs).  One day at work, he had an ATV on a lift when the ATV slipped off the lift without any warning.  The ATV crushed employee when it fell off the lift, and he died as a result of his injuries.

workHis wife, who was the actual plaintiff in this case, since her husband died as a result of his on- the-job accident, was coming to meet her husband that day to bring him lunch, as she often did.  When she arrived at his place of employment, she was shocked and dismayed to find his dead body lying beneath the ATV, which had fallen off the lift. Continue reading

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