Massachusetts Workers’ Compensation Lawyer Blog

Although all workers’ compensation benefits require that the injury occur during the course of employment, injuries do not necessarily have to be physical in order to be compensable. Benefits can also be temporary or permanent, depending on the severity of the injury.

Workers’ compensation benefits used to require a physical element in order to be compensable, but mental injuries can potentially entitle injured employees to benefits as well. Often, while there doesn’t necessarily have to be a physical injury that occurs concurrently with the mental injury, there is typically a minimum requirement of some sort of contact.

Workers’ compensation benefits can be available in instances of extreme workplace stress. However, in order to be compensable, the stress must be so extreme that it goes beyond the ordinary day-to-day stress that employees are typically exposed to. Additionally, there must be a connection between the stress and the alleged injury.

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The Appeals Court of Massachusetts recently had before it an appeal from the decision of an administrative judge regarding a workers’ compensation benefit claim.

In the case, In Re Hines’s Case, Mass. App. Ct. (2015), the plaintiff, an employee who had been working as a personal care attendant, slipped and broke his right ankle. The injury required surgeries to put in place and later remove orthodontic hardware.

The employee applied for and received temporary total incapacity workers’ compensation benefits. Two years later, after conducting surveillance regarding the case, the insurer moved to terminate the employee’s benefits. At that time, the employee attempted to include a psychiatric claim.

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In a recent Massachusetts Appeals Court case, Galvao v. Lowe, Mass. App. Ct. (2014), the court ruled to affirm a summary judgment motion that was granted on behalf of the defendant in a case where the plaintiff was seeking damages in lieu of workers’ compensation benefits.

The case involved a worker who was reportedly injured during the course of his work for a granite company. While the complete facts of the case were not included in the opinion, the plaintiff sued presumably his employer, and also his employer’s girlfriend, who later became his wife, for failing to carry workers’ compensation insurance. The subject of this particular appeal was as to the liability of the girlfriend/wife.

The plaintiff alleged that the girlfriend/wife was liable for the failure to carry workers’ compensation insurance, since he asserted that her involvement with the business rose to the level of her being a de facto partner. The trial court disagreed, which is why it granted her motion for summary judgment.

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In a critically important recent case, Sebago v. Boston Cab Dispatch, Inc., Mass. Sup. Jud. Ct. (2015), the Supreme Judicial Court entered a decision on the issue of whether state wage laws are disharmonious with Rule 403, which extensively regulates the taxicab industry in Boston.

At issue in the case was the contention that several taxicab drivers believed that they were improperly classified as independent contractors, rather than employees, and that therefore they were properly entitled to workers’ compensation benefits, among other related claims.

In 1930, the legislature granted the authority to the police commissioner of Boston to create regulations for taxicabs and related methods of transportation. Then in 2008, pursuant to that prior regulatory system, the commissioner under the authority of that mandate promulgated Rule 403. This created a comprehensive system of rules and regulations that govern the ownership, leasing, licensing, rate setting, and operation of taxicabs in the city of Boston.

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Workers’ compensation is a system that was designed to provide compensation for workers who become injured or sick due to their job. As a condition of availing themselves of the system, workers forfeit the right to pursue any other potential legal remedies under the common law, and the employer gives up any judgments or determinations regarding fault. If an employee becomes injured or sick in a manner that arises out of their employment, they are entitled to workers’ compensation. However, in order for that system to work properly, it must be funded adequately.

The Massachusetts Attorney General recently announced a case of purported workers’ compensation fraud by two separate business owners that were reportedly indicted for failure to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in workers’ compensation insurance premiums, according to the Attorney General.

The Executive Director of the Insurance Fraud Bureau announced that his office will work in concert with the Attorney General’s office to investigate this case, and any similar cases that may attempt to defraud the Massachusetts workers’ compensation system.

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In a recent case related to workers’ compensation, Commonwealth v. Parker, Mass. App. Ct. (2015), the case arose out of a scenario in which the defendant was convicted by a jury of having purportedly misled a police officer engaged in a criminal investigation. The defendant appealed the decision, claiming that the evidence was insufficient to support her conviction.

The court included the following facts in its opinion. On the day of the incident, a police officer was dispatched to the location on a report of shots fired at a bus driver. The defendant (bus driver) informed the police officer that a person boarded the bus, brandished a weapon, and ordered her to give him all of her money. He then allegedly fired a shot at her, which caused a bullet to be lodged in the driver’s seat. The driver then attempted to stand in order to reach for her wallet, but the assailant hit her, causing her to fall backwards and resulting in injury. The assailant then allegedly fired three additional shots, two of which purportedly pierced her sleeve, but the bullet did not injure her.

The defendant then reportedly described her assailant to the police officer. She also purportedly informed the officer of the type of weapon that had been used.

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In a recent workers’ compensation case, Riley v. City of Lynn, Mass. App. Ct. (2014), the court issued an opinion on the complicated area of the interplay of injured police officer benefits and retirement benefits.

In the case, a police officer had incurred extensive injury to his mouth in the line of duty, such that a decision in 1984 declared that he was permanently disabled, under the legal sense of the term, and that he was accordingly entitled to all of the benefits and compensation afforded to disabled police officers under the law.

In 2008, there was a bench trial that concluded that the injuries to the officer’s teeth and mouth were the natural and proximate cause of the work-related injury, and that therefore so was his need for a full mouth restoration. The judge thus found that the proposed course of treatment and projected expenses were reasonable.

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