Workers Compensation Newsletters

Assaults

A worker's injury that results from an assault is not compensable unless the assault arises out of his employment. The employment connection is satisfied if it is shown that the type of work or the setting in which it is performed increased the worker's risk of assault. For example, occupations that may carry a higher risk of assault due to their very nature are police officer, prison guard, and security guard, to name a few. Further, employees who work in a dangerous area of a city or who work at night may also be at an increased risk for assault.

Nonprofit and Charitable Employers

Nonprofit and charitable employers are not treated the same in every state for purposes of workers' compensation. Some states expressly exclude them from the operation of the workers' compensation statute while others expressly include them or neglect to address them at all. Despite this, the majority of jurisdictions hold that nonprofit and charitable employers are, in fact, subject to the workers' compensation system. Such employers may include churches and synagogues, educational institutions, charitable organizations such as the Salvation Army that are designed to aid the community, and the like.

Post-Employment Injuries

Though it would seem to be antagonistic to the principle that an injury must arise out of the employment to be compensable, some injuries that occur post-employment are still compensable. Depending on the situation, some activities occurring post-employment are considered by the courts to be normal work activities. For example, injuries incurred while picking up a paycheck, exiting the work premises, and collecting belongings from the employer's premises have all been held to be compensable provided that such activities are undertaken within a reasonable time after the employment relationship has ended.

Social Security Benefits

Though most states require that the injured worker be subject to a contract for hire to receive workers' compensation benefits, such benefits will usually be denied if the contract for hire is illegal. However, the illegality must arise from the nature of the employment and the worker's performance of illegal acts as opposed to the illegality that arises in the making of the contract itself.

"Third Person" Entities

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.