Employer-Provided Motel Room Insufficient to Transform Georgia Worker into Traveling Employee

Reiterating that Georgia Superior Courts are required to give appropriate deference to the factual findings of the Appellate Division of the Board of Workers’ Compensation, the Court of Appeals of...

Boys Will Be Boys: Winning Comp Claim Isn’t as Easy as Falling Out of a Tree

A Mississippi pipe fitter, who sustained five broken ribs and a spinal cord injury when he fell a distance of approximately 25 feet from the top of a gum tree...

Oregon Court Says Walking to Post Office Isn’t “Recreational” Just Because Employee Enjoyed the Activity

That an office worker enjoyed walking did not transform her trip to the post office during the workday into recreational activity, held an Oregon appellate court recently in Sedgwick Claims...

Arkansas Truck Driver’s Fatal Injuries Sustained While Crossing Street After Break Are Compensable

An Arkansas tanker-truck driver sustained an injury arising out of and in the course of the employment when he was struck by a vehicle as the truck driver exited a...

Arkansas Truck Driver’s Fatal Injuries Sustained While Crossing Street After Break Are Compensable

Arkansas Truck Driver’s Fatal Injuries Sustained While Crossing Street After Break Are Compensable

South Dakota: Horseplay Injury During Lull In Workday Found Compensable

Applying the four Larson factors to determine whether an act of horseplay was or was not a substantial deviation from the employment [see Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 23.01], the...

Tell-Tale Web Page on Employee’s Blackberry Spells Doom for South Dakota Comp Claim

An employee’s injuries sustained in a one-car auto accident while he drove down a dead-end road some 2.5 miles from his office did not arise out of and in the...

Kentucky High Court Splits in Case Involving Personal Comfort Doctrine

In a split decision dealing with the application of the personal comfort doctrine described in Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 21.01, et seq., a majority of the Supreme Court of...

“Dog Bites Man”: Pennsylvania Court Affirms Award for Worker Bitten By Co-Worker’s Canine

Yesterday, a Pennsylvania appellate court affirmed an order by the state’s Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board awarding workers’ compensation benefits to a worker who sustained facial lacerations and permanent scarring when...

Ohio Jury Uses MapQuest Data to Help Establish Significance of Claimant’s Deviation from Employment

An Ohio appellate court recently affirmed a jury’s determination that a home health care nursing director, who sustained injuries in an automobile accident as he drove from a restaurant to...

Pennsylvania: 5-Minute Deviation Defeated Workers’ Comp Claim

Some years ago, my mentor, Arthur Larson, when commenting upon the issue of deviations within the workplace, wrote that courts generally recognize “that human beings do not run on tracks...

Louisiana: Police Sergeant’s Short Trip to Headquarters To Get Cash From Credit Union Was Deviation From Employment; Injuries in Stairwell Not Compensable

A Louisiana appellate court recently affirmed the denial of a claim filed by a police sergeant who sustained injuries when he fell in a stairwell at Police Headquarters following a...

Georgia Appellate Court: Effort to Stop Runaway Car is Not a Deviation From the Employment

Last Wednesday, a Georgia appellate court, holding the State Board of Workers’ Compensation had utilized an “erroneous theory” regarding what conduct constitutes a deviation from employment that will bar compensation...