NorthCarolinaLaw

www.edelsteinpayne.com NC Workers' Compensation: Delay in Seeking Retroactive Payment for Attendant Care was Reasonable (Originally Posted by Sean Cecil Dec 01, 2015)  (0 Comments) Sometimes it's better not to appeal a ruling you don't agree with. In an opinion issued today by the North Carolina Court of Appeals, workers' comp insurer Liberty Mutual was again ordered to pay an injured worker's attorney fees, after the company unsuccessfully appealed an order to pay for attendant care for the second time. The worker, Connie Chandler, was injured over ten years ago when she fell and hit her head on stairs while performing janitorial duties. She was diagnosed with a concussion and a closed-head brain injury. Her condition deteriorated, eventually she required round-the-clock attendant care and was later ruled legally incompetent; her husband was appointed guardian.  Ms. Chandler's husband acted as his wife's attendant for years, without pa...

www.edelsteinpayne.com 4th Circuit: Failure to Act Can Create Liability for Employer Originally Posted by Sean Cecil Jul 16, 2015  (0 Comments) An employer may be held liable for a hostile work environment caused by an unknown actor when the employer fails to act on a complaint. In  Pryor v. United Airlines , the plaintiff, an African-American employee of United Airlines, received anonymous racist death threats at work and complained to her supervisor, who told her he was sorry and there was nothing he could do because there was no security camera covering the secured area where the racist death threat was delivered in the workers mailbox. Although the complaint was  moved up the chain of command, the supervisors failed to follow the company's protocol, which required that the Employee Service Center be contacted whenever a supervisor or manager was aware of an incident or complaint of harassment or discrimination. Although a manager did contact corpor...

www.edelsteinpayne.com Workers' Comp: Fresno County, CA Claims Injured Inmates Were Employees Subject to Comp Originally Posted by Sean Cecil May 22, 2015  (0 Comments) In an attempt to shield the government from liability, Fresno County claims that 9 inmates injured in a gas line explosion are employees and therefore subject to workers' compensation laws. Assuming that California's workers' comp laws operate in a manner similar to the  North Carolina Workers' Compensation Act , successfully pleading the inmates as employees will result in a limitation of available compensation for the injuries. Under comp, the inmates' injuries would be paid by the county's workers' comp insurance carrier, and the inmates would be unable to sue for general damages such as pain and suffering like they would under a general tort suit, and under NC comp at least, surviving beneficiaries would be severely limited in the damages available for the death of a worker...