Workers Compensation

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Workers Compensation
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Workers Compensation

• . . . The industrial aristocracy of our day,
  when it has impoverished and brutalized the man
  it uses, abandons them in time of crisis to
  public charity to feed them.
• Alexis de Toqueville, Democracy in America (1835
  1840)

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Workers Compensation

• Farwell v. Boston and Worcester R.R. Corp., 4
  Metc. (Mass.) 49 (1849)
• The general rule is that he who engages in the
  employment of another for the performance of
  specified duties and services, for compensation,
  takes upon himself the natural and ordinary risks
  and perils incident to the performance of such
  services, and in legal presumption, the
  compensation is adjusted accordingly.
• C.J. Lemual Shaw

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Workers Compensation

• Farwell v. B.W R.R. (contd)
• . . . the loss was sustained by means of an
  ordinary casualty, caused by the negligence of
  another servant of the company. . . it must be
  deemed the result of pure accident, like those to
  which all men, in all employments, and at all
  times, are more or less exposed and like similar
  losses from accidental causes, it must rest where
  it first fell . . .

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Workers Compensation

• Crystal Eastman, Study of Work Accidents in
  Allegheny County, Pennsylvania (1907).

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Workers Compensation

• The Unholy Trilogy of workplace activities
• Assumption of Risk
• Contributory Negligence
• Fellow Servant Rule

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Workers Compensation

• Legislative Enactments
• Employers Liability Acts
• Worker had to prove fault
• Contributory negligence mitigated damages
• A/R and F/S would not apply if employer violated
  safety statute

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Workers Compensation

• Isaac Rubinow, Study of Claims Under Employers
  Liability Statutes (1913)
• 32.5 resulted in no compensation
• 23.7 paid claims of less than 100
• 24 paid claims of less than 500
• 9.3 paid claims over 1,000

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Workers Compensation

• Massachusetts Workers Compensation Statute
  passed in 1904
• By 1920 eight states did not have such statutes
• Indiana adopted workers compensation in 1929
• Mississippi adopted workers compensation in 1949.

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Workers Compensation

• Controlled by statute

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Workers Compensation

• Controlled by statute
• particular language varies is important

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Workers Compensation

• Controlled by statute
• particular language varies is important
• System is no-fault liability

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Workers Compensation

• Controlled by statute
• particular language varies is important
• System is no-fault liability
• But no-fault does not mean no defense

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Workers Compensation - Elements

• Coverage
• Workers and employers covered specific to statute

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Coverage Indiana Statute e.g.

• IC 22-3-2-2
• (a) Every employer and every employee except as
  stated in IC 22-3-2 through IC 22-3-6, shall
  comply with the provisions of IC 22-3-2 through
  22-3-6 respectively to pay and accept
  compensation for personal injury or death by
  accident arising out of and in the course of the
  employment and shall be bound thereby.

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Coverage Indiana Statute e.g.

• IC 22-3-2-2
• (a) Every employer and every employee except as
  stated in IC 22-3-2 through IC 22-3-6, shall
  comply with the provisions of IC 22-3-2 through
  22-3-6 respectively to pay and accept
  compensation for personal injury or death by
  accident arising out of and in the course of the
  employment and shall be bound thereby.

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Exceptions Indiana Statute e.g.

• (b) IC 22-3-2 through IC 22-3-6 does not apply to
  railroad employees engaged in train service as
  follows
• (1) engineers
• (2) firemen
• (3) conductors
• (4) brakemen
• (5) flagmen
• (6) baggagemen or
• (7) foremen in charge of yard engines and
  helpers assigned thereto.

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Exceptions Indiana Statute e.g.

• (c) Municipal firefighters and police who are
  members of a pension fund.

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Exceptions Indiana Statute e.g.

• (c) Municipal firefighters and police who are
  members of a pension fund.
• 22-3-2-9 (a)
• IC 22-3-2 through 22-3-6 shall not apply to
  casual laborers as defined in 22-3-6-1) nor to
  domestic servants, nor to the employers of such
  persons.

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Exceptions Indiana Statute e.g.

• (c) Municipal firefighters and police who are
  members of a pension fund.
• 22-3-2-9 (a)
• IC 22-3-2 through 22-3-6 shall not apply to
  casual laborers as defined in 22-3-6-1) nor to
  domestic servants, nor to the employers of such
  persons.
• irregular, unpredictable, sporadic, brief

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Workers Compensation - Elements

• Coverage
• Workers and employers covered specific to statute
• Compensable injury?

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Workers Compensation - Elements

• Coverage
• Workers and employers covered specific to statute
• Compensable injury?
• Injury by accident
• Arising out of employment
• In the course of employment

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Compensable Injury

• Injury by accident
• a sudden, unexpected, untoward event

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Compensable Injury

• Injury by accident
• a sudden, unexpected, untoward event
• intended to exclude disabilities resulting from
  usual wear and tear of the usual duties of the
  job and that developed gradually

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Compensable Injury

• Injury by accident
• a sudden, unexpected, untoward event
• intended to exclude disabilities resulting from
  usual wear and tear of the usual duties of the
  job and that developed gradually
• former, rather rigid, exclusion has given way to
  broadened interpretation of accident,
  occupational disease acts, industrial disability
  acts, insurance, etc.

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Compensable injury

• Arising out of employment
• i.e., can the injured claimant establish a causal
  connection between the workplace and the injury?

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Compensable injury

• Arising out of employment
• i.e., can the injured claimant establish a causal
  connection between the workplace and the injury?
• Satisfied if injury was produced by a risk posed
  by the employment

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Compensable injury

• Arising out of employment
• i.e., can the injured claimant establish a causal
  connection between the workplace and the injury?
• Satisfied if injury was produced by a risk posed
  by the employment
• Split where employee faces street risks
• restrictive risk must be different from street
  risk
• expansive risk can include street risks

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Compensable injury

• In the course of employment
• time, place and activity restrictions
• within period of work
• on the premises or where worker is supposed to be
• while the worker was doing something connected to
  the job
• requirements are generally restrictive

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Workers Compensation - Elements

• Covered?
• Specific to statute
• Compensable?
• Accident?
• Arising out of employment
• Causal connection
• In the course of employment
• Time, place, activity restrictions

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Defenses

• Challenge claimants establishment of elements
• fault (or lack of it) is irrelevant in most
  situations
• Workers violation of criminal statute, willful
  violation of safety regulation, intoxication, or
  intentionally self-inflicted injury e.g., IC
  22-3-2-8
• Details of coverage (e.g., duration)

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Other Important Points

• If worker is eligible for benefits, resort to
  torts compensation system is completely barred
• some exceptions where employer violates safety
  regulations
• Actions against third parties who share
  responsibility with employer are available, but
  non-culpable employer can be reimbursed from
  recovery

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Workers Compensation