WORKERS’ COMPENSATION
Representative Cases
- Farm worker injured when her hair was caught in a conveyor belt while sorting olives. The worker had not been properly trained to be a sorter and her primary job was picking fruit elsewhere on the farm. The worker was employed by a farm labor company that had been hired by the owner of the farm. The farm’s insurance carrier denied coverage under the “special employee” doctrine.
- Owner of a restaurant refused to pay the full amount of his workers’ compensation premium stating that most of the employees worked in the ice cream parlor section of the business but had been misclassified by the insurance carrier as working in kitchen resulting in a higher balance due.
- Defendant ran a red light causing serious personal injury to the plaintiff. The Plaintiff was driving within the scope of employment at the time of the loss. As a result, the workers’ compensation carrier for the Plaintiff’s employer paid for a substantial amount of the medicals and lost wages. Plaintiff sued the Defendant for available damages and workers' compensation carrier intervened in the case for reimbursement.
- Plaintiff was within the scope of employment as a mover when he fell due what he claimed to be an unreasonably dangerous condition on the Defendant’s premises. The workers’ compensation carrier for the Plaintiff’s employer intervened in the case for reimbursement of medicals and wage replacement paid to the injured worker.
- Plaintiff was injured by Defendant in parking lot while waiting for employer’s bus to pick her up for work. Workers' Compensation carrier denied coverage stating that the Plaintiff was not within the scope of employment at the time of the loss.
