A Capehart Scatchard Blog

Compensability

Plaintiff’s Claim For Intentional Harm Survives Motion To Dismiss Made By Defendant

By on November 18, 2011 in Compensability, NJ Workers' Comp with 0 Comments

The exclusive remedy provision is a powerful one in New Jersey.  It is the rare case where a plaintiff successfully proves intentional harm.  Nonetheless, a well-plead complaint will often survive a motion to dismiss as is shown in Blackshear v. Syngenta Crop Protection., et. al. 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 125505 (D.N.J. October 31, 2011).  The […]

Continue Reading »

Are Complications From Flu Shots Provided By Employers Considered Compensable?

By on November 2, 2011 in Compensability, NJ Workers' Comp with 0 Comments

Many employers offer flu shots and other inoculations to employees on company premises during work hours.  Complications from flu shots are very rare but the Centers for Disease Control have noted that about one in 100,000 people who get a flu shot will develop Guillain-Barre syndrome, which is a debilitating nerve disorder.  There are also […]

Continue Reading »

Owner Of Restaurant Who Left Home Earlier Than Usual For Meeting Was Not Covered In Accident On Way To Work

By on October 25, 2011 in Compensability, NJ Workers' Comp with 0 Comments

Since the legislative change in 1979 to substitute a premises rule for the going-and-coming rule, there have been many attempts to expand the “special mission” exception.  The general rule is that only injuries on employer-owned or maintained premises are covered.  One big exception involves injuries that emanate from the performance of special missions.  That latest […]

Continue Reading »

Employer Did Not Owe Temp Benefits To Employee Fired For Violation Of Company Drug Policy

By on October 19, 2011 in Compensability, NJ Workers' Comp with 0 Comments

John Gioia worked for Herr Foods as a delivery person.  He injured his right ankle stepping from his delivery truck on November 23, 2007.   He began authorized treatment right away and underwent an MRI one month later which revealed an avulsion fracture and sprain of the deltoid ligaments. The accident occurred on the Friday after […]

Continue Reading »

Light Duty – Harbatuk v. S&S Furniture Systems Insulation

In addition to terminating temporary disability benefits on maximal medical improvement, an employer can terminate such benefits when the employee can return to work light or modified duty under Harbatuk v. S & S Furniture Systems Insulation, 211 N.J. Super. 614 (App. Div. 1986). The basic rule which emerges from Harbatuk is this:  the employer has […]

Continue Reading »

Intentional Harm – Millison v. E.I. duPont deNemours & Co.

In New Jersey it is very difficult to get past the exclusive remedy provision.  The leading case on proving an intentional harm claim sufficient to get beyond the exclusive remedy is Millison v. E.I. duPont de Nemours & Co., 101 N.J. 161 (1985) in which plaintiffs had shown intentional wrong by respondent in deliberately concealing […]

Continue Reading »

Intentional Harm – Laidlow v. Hariton Machinery Co., Inc.

Until 2002, the standard employed to decide whether conduct constituted intentional harm was so rigid that it basically amounted to proving that an employer created a virtual certainty of harm. Then came a series of decisions from the New Jersey Supreme Court which opened up the exclusive remedy provision. One of the leading cases is Laidlow […]

Continue Reading »

Top