| Mental and Nervous Injury |
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| Generally, a worker's injury that occurs in the course of his employment is compensable even though it is a mental or nervous injury as opposed to a physical one. With causation and "arising out of the employment" issues dispensed with, the majority of states find that a mental condition, which causes a physical injury, is compensable. For example, a worker is frightened by a sudden event or accident and immediately thereafter suffers a heart attack. Compensability is no less viable when the mental stimulus is sustained over a period of time. For example, an employee who over the course of months is so pressured by the demands of his employer and his position that, even though relatively young, he suffers a heart attack.More... |
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| Determining "Dependency" for Workers' Compensation Death Benefits |
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| The issue of "dependency," with respect to the receipt of workers' compensation death benefits, is generally determined either as of the date of the worker's death or the date of the accident that caused his death. Those individuals who are, therefore, "dependents" on the requisite date will be eligible to receive death benefits in an amount commensurate with the measure of dependency on the worker, i.e. total or partial dependency.More... |
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| "Third Person" Entities |
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| An employee who is injured during the course of his employment may, in addition to workers' compensation, seek damages in a third party action. Whether the employee of a subsidiary may sue the parent corporation, or vice versa, to recover damages for his injury is dependent on the jurisdiction. Though most often an affiliated corporation, such as a subsidiary or its parent, strives to maintain its independence from the other entity so as to be shielded by the corporate veil, in cases of worker injury such entities claim mutual identity to be protected from suit by the "employer's" immunity. In other words, if the injured employee works for the subsidiary, but files a third party action against the parent, the parent will argue that it stands in the shoes of the subsidiary as the employer and is thus immune from suit. This argument may very well work if the subsidiary is wholly owned and controlled by the parent.More... |
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| Employee's Failure to Obey Safety Rules as Statutory Defense |
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| When an employee claims workers' compensation benefits are due to him based on an injury that occurred on the job, many states allow an employer to defend itself by presenting evidence that the employee wilfully disobeyed the employer's prescribed safety rules or purposefully neglected to use a safety device. Although in rare cases the defense represents a complete bar to the employee's recovery of benefits, usually the employee's recovery is just subject to a reduction.More... |
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| "Benefits" Under the Black Lung Benefits Act |
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| Once eligibility under the Black Lung Benefits Act has been established, a totally disabled miner will receive benefit payments equal to a portion of the monthly pay rate for federal employees. Should the miner succumb to the pneumoconiosis disease, his surviving widow will be entitled to the same monthly benefit payment. If the miner has no surviving widow, his single surviving child will also receive the same monthly benefit amount. The benefit amount increases incrementally with each subsequent surviving child. Finally, if there is no surviving widow and no surviving children, the miner's dependent parents or siblings will receive a monthly benefit amount at the children's rate. The receipt of payments pursuant to workers' compensation or unemployment insurance may reduce these beneficiary amounts.More... |
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