By Thomas A. Robinson
Late last Wednesday evening (April 25th), supporters of a controversial bill that would have allowed some Oklahoma employers to “opt out” of the state’s traditional workers’ compensation system [see Oklahoma House Bill 2155] fell short of having sufficient votes to move the legislation through the Oklahoma House of Representatives and on to the state’s Governor. The measure would have allowed qualifying employers to establish written benefit plans pursuant to the Employment Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) in lieu of the existing state system. While the ERISA plans would have been required to provide benefits at the same or higher level as under current law, critics, pointing to somewhat similar plans established by opt out employers in nearby Texas, said the practical effect of House Bill 2155 would have been to diminish significantly the disability and medical benefits injured workers might receive in Oklahoma.
The vote–42 in favor and 50 against—surprised many since an earlier version, containing many of the same provisions, had passed in the House in mid-March by a margin of greater than 3 to 1. Following that favorable House vote, the bill eased its way through the Oklahoma Senate on April 18 by a 28-17 vote, although in a somewhat different form. I’ve held off writing the H.B. 2155 obituary—a last minute legislative maneuver as the bill was going down in defeat allowed for the possibility that the measure might be brought back up for a vote at any time through the close of yesterday’s House session. That deadline has now passed without a new vote; the bill has now officially succumbed. Continue reading
Texas Widow Prevails In Death Claim Case By Showing Husband’s Drug Overdose Could Have Been Caused By Side Effects of Prescription Pain Medication
It is axiomatic in workers’ compensation law that a subsequent injury, whether an aggravation of the original injury or a new and distinct injury, is compensable if it is the direct and natural result of a compensable primary injury [see Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 10.01 et seq]. The most basic application of this principle is the rule that all the medical consequences and sequel that flow from the primary injury are compensable. The cases illustrating this rule fall into two groups.
Range of Compensable Consequences
The first group, about which there is little legal controversy, comprises the cases in which an initial medical condition itself progresses into complications more serious than the original injury; the added complications are almost always compensable [see Larson, § 10.02]. The second group of medical-causation cases comprises the cases in which the existence of the primary compensable injury in some way exacerbates the effects of an independent medical weakness or disease. The causal sequence in these cases may be more indirect or complex, but as long as the causal connection is in fact present the compensability of the subsequent condition is beyond question.
Intervening Causes, Such as Medication Overdose
In some circumstances, for example, when pain medication is prescribed for an employee’s work-related injury and that employee later dies from an overdose of that medicine, the issue arises as to whether the causal connection with the original injury is still present in any significant way. Indeed, has there been a sufficient break in the chain of causation such that the death is not compensable? A Texas appellate court dealt with just that issue recently in Commerce & Industry Ins. Co. v. Ferguson-Stewart, Case Number 13-10-00554-CV ((Tex. App.—Corpus Christi-Edenberg [13th Dist.] May 10, 2012). The appellate court, affirming a decision by a state trial court, held that under the facts of the particular case, because evidence showed the employee became disoriented, forgetful, and confused as a side effect of taking the medication, his death could indeed be compensable. Continue reading →