Does a Texas Employer’s Duty To Maintain a Safe Workplace Extend to Employees Who Are Fully Aware of a Premises Defect? Fifth Circuit Asks Texas Supreme Court To Decide
Posted on Mar 21, 2014
Following a workplace incident in which a janitor hired to clean up a spill fell and sustained injuries, the worker brought suit against his employer in tort. Unlike most states, Texas employers can opt out of the state’s workers’ compensation program, which the employer in this case had done. Texas law, however, makes certain defenses such as contributory negligence and assumption of risk unavailable to these non-subscribing employers when sued by their employees for injuries or death. The Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court’s dismissal of the worker’s gross negligence claim but...
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Nineteen Illinois Wrongful Death Suits Stemming from Lac-Mégantic Train Derailment Transferred to Maine
Posted on Mar 21, 2014
The U.S. District Court for the District of Maine granted a motion to transfer nineteen wrongful death cases filed in Illinois following the July 6, 2013 derailment of a train carrying Bakken crude oil that exploded and killed 47 people in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, to the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine “based on the Court’s limited finding that claims against certain of the defendants named therein are related to the Railway’s bankruptcy.” Although it acknowledged that “there may be no basis for federal jurisdiction other than bankruptcy relatedness,” the Court declined to...
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Federal OSHA Scrutinizing State OSHA Regimes: Arizona and Indiana Recent Examples
Posted on Mar 20, 2014
Recent federal reviews of both Arizona and Indiana’s state OSHA policies have revealed that both states fall short of federal OSHA standards. On March 19, federal OSHA sent the Industrial Commission of Arizona a letter advising that Arizona’s standards for protecting residential construction workers from falls were not as effective as federal standards. The letter cited Arizona’s failure to provide for protection for workers working between 6 and 15 feet whereas in contrast, the federal standard requires fall protection systems at heights of at least 6 feet. While the letter noted that...
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Custom Packaging Manufacturer Justified in Terminating Worker on Belief Worker Violated Company’s Safety Absolutes Policy
Posted on Mar 19, 2014
During the process of manufacturing custom address labels, a North Carolina worker’s fingers were pulled in between a sheeting machine’s rollers when she placed her hand on the paper to see how much tension existed. She sustained bruises to her hand that required her to go to the hospital. The company’s printing department manager immediately investigated, found no defects with the machine, and determined that the employee had reached into moving equipment. Nine days later, the plant manager told the worker she was terminated for violating one of the company’s “Safety Absolutes Policy,”...
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Tenth Circuit Affirms Jury Verdict in Negligent Design Case Against Manufacturer of Truck-Mounted Drill Rig
Posted on Mar 18, 2014
An Oklahoma rig worker brought suit for strict product liability and negligent design against the manufacturer of a truck-mounted drill rig after suffering catastrophic injuries from becoming entwined in the rig’s auger. On the strict product liability claim, Oklahoma law requires a plaintiff to show that a defect 1) caused the injury; 2) existed at the time it left the manufacturer’s control; and 3) made the product unreasonably dangerous. The district court granted summary judgment to the manufacturer on this claim, concluding that the worker failed to establish that the product was...
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Federal District Court Upholds Indemnity Language Requiring General Contractor To Defend and Indemnify Railroad Company Even Where Railroad Company Is Allegedly Negligent
Posted on Mar 18, 2014
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York held that D.C. law required a general contractor to pay the defense costs of and indemnify a railroad company in a personal injury suit brought by one of the general contractor’s employees who was injured while working on a bridge owned by the railroad company. The railroad company had rejected the general contractor’s original offer to provide defense counsel in the suit. The general contractor’s employee sued the railroad company, alleging negligence and violations of New York Labor Law. In turn, the railroad company filed a...
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Claims Against Pesticide Company To Proceed To Trial for Allegedly Causing Explosion in North Carolina Peanut Plant
Posted on Mar 17, 2014
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina denied summary judgment to a company accused of improperly applying the pesticide Fumitoxin when fumigating a peanut storage dome. The bulk of the case that alleges $20 million in damages as the result of an explosion several days after the application of the pesticide will proceed to trial.
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