Minnesota Federal Court Allows Elderly Worker’s Claims That She Was Fired For Filing For Workers’ Compensation Benefits To Proceed
Posted on Jul 13, 2014
Following a 70-year old worker’s termination by an assisted-living facility, she alleged that she was terminated for seeking workers’ compensation benefits, and that she was discriminated against on the basis of age. The U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota has allowed her claims to proceed, denying the defendant’s summary judgment motion. The court pointed out that construing the facts in her favor, the employer knew she had suffered an injury at work and had stated that she could be fired for filing an appeal of a denial of workers’ compensation benefits. The court found...
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Illinois Federal Court Holds Responsible Party Under Oil Pollution Act Does Not Have To Establish Actual Cause Of Incident To Obtain Limitation Of Liability
Posted on Jul 13, 2014
In January 2005, a barge exploded in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. The explosion killed an employee of the barge owner and spilled 4,718 gallons of oil into the canal. The insurers of the barge owner paid more than $8.6 million in costs associated with the removal effort and then sought to recover the costs from the Oil Pollution Act’s Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund through administrative claims to the National Pollution Funds Center (NPFC), claiming they were entitled to full exoneration from liability and recovery of all clean-up and removal costs under 33 U.S.C. § 2703 because...
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Safety Violation Upheld By Kentucky Court Where Injured Electrical Worker Not Wearing PPE And Tensioner Truck Not Grounded
Posted on Jul 12, 2014
The reconductoring process involves stringing new power lines alongside existing energized lines to avoid a power disruption. During this process at a site in Meade County, Kentucky in 2009, while a worker was turning the winch on a tensioner mounted in a truck to increase the tension in a power line, the worker, who was not wearing any insulating personal protective equipment (PPE), touched the power line and suffered electrical burns so severe that his right arm required amputation. Kentucky OSHA investigated the incident and issued a citation to the employer for a serious safety...
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Senator Rockefeller Urges President To Have OMB Act On Crude-By-Rail Proposed Rulemaking
Posted on Jul 11, 2014
Earlier this week, U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), Chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, sent a letter to President Obama urging him to have the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) act on the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) proposed crude-by-rail rulemaking “as expeditiously and thoroughly as possible.” Citing the disaster in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, and more recent crude-by-rail incidents in the United States, Senator Rockefeller pleaded, “Mr. President, we cannot wait for another devastating derailment and explosion to happen here that will...
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Supreme Court Of Texas Provides “Much-Needed Clarity” To Texas Spoliation Jurisprudence
Posted on Jul 11, 2014
On July 3, the Supreme Court of Texas issued a significant opinion in Brookshire Brothers, Ltd. v. Jerry Aldridge, No. 10-0846 (Tex. 2014), that clarifies the standards governing the spoliation of evidence in Texas as well as the parameters of a trial court’s discretion to impose a remedy upon a finding of spoliation. The 6-3 decision includes a number of notable holdings, including that the “harsh remedy” of a spoliation instruction is not warranted in cases involving unintentional spoliation except in the “rare circumstance” where “the act of spoliation, although merely negligent, so...
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Case Involving Miner’s Benefits Claim Not Precluded By Issues Decided In Widow’s Claim For Survivor’s Benefits
Posted on Jul 10, 2014
Last week, the Fourth Circuit denied a coal company’s petition for review of a Benefits Review Board decision that affirmed a grant of living miner benefits to a former employee under the Black Lung Benefits Act. The company argued that the award should be vacated because the case was precluded by a previously adjudicated claim for survivor’s benefits by the miner’s widow, which was denied after a finding that the miner’s death was not caused by pneumoconiosis. The miner’s own case was pending at the time of his death, and was ultimately decided in his favor (finding his death was caused...
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Injuries Caused In Oilfield Mud Tank Not Subject To Insurance Policy’s Pollution Exemption
Posted on Jul 10, 2014
In December 2012, an oilfield worker for a services subcontractor specializing in the cleaning of mud tanks arrived at a worksite and proceeded to clean a tank at the instruction of the general contractor. The general contractor allegedly failed to inform the worker that the tank contained large quantities of caustic materials and as a result, the worker entered the tank without the necessary safety equipment and waded in the mud, which caused significant burns and major injuries. In an attempt to treat the injuries, one coworker poured vinegar on the burns, which only exacerbated the...
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