MHK Attorneys

$597,000

Workers' Compensation - Railroad Injury

A man who had worked for 38 years for CSX Transportation Inc retired in 2013 because of knee and shoulder injuries. He filed a lawsuit against CSX, Consolidated Rail and American Premier. The lawsuit claimed that the Federal Employer Liability Act had been violated by the defendants. The plaintiff called up orthopedic surgery experts to testify, as well as experts in ergonomics and economics. The defendants alleged that the man’s injuries were because of a thyroid condition and his age. In addition, the defendants said that the man’s claims were not valid because he ran 5K races, both while he was employed and afterwards. Because the orthopedic surgery expert said that the man needed knee surgery and he waited over a year to have it done so he could qualify for vacation pay, the jury found that the former railroad car inspector was .5 percent responsible for his past and future lost earnings and past lost wages. He said that he deals with pain on a daily basis. American Premier was found 9.5 percent liable, Consolidated Rail, 40 percent, and CSX was found 50 percent liable for the man’s injuries. They are appealing the verdict.

Workers' Compensation - PTSD

A Pennsylvania man who developed PTSD after the liquor store he worked at was robbed has won a potentially important legal victory. The Commonwealth Court recently reversed itself and ruled that the man was entitled to workers’ compensation benefits. He was the manager of a state liquor store that was the scene of a robbery in April 2008. A masked man entered the store, pulled a gun on the manager and duct-taped him to a chair. It was the only time the man was robbed in more than 30 years working in liquor stores. He has been unable to return to work since due to PTSD, for which he receives Social Security Disability benefits. He also applied for workers’ compensation and was approved, but the state liquor board and its insurer appealed. The case went to trial and the manager prevailed, but his employer appealed again and the Commonwealth Court narrowly voted to deny the benefits. The plaintiff appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Before the Court considered the case, it ruled in a somewhat similar case that workers’ compensation officials must consider the specific circumstances of an individual claim before they rule what the claimant’s “normal working conditions” are. The case went back to the Commonwealth Court. Applying the new rule, the judges ruled unanimously in the manager’s favor late in December.

Workers' Compensation - Fall from Height

An independent subcontractor hired as a painter for Lee’s Metal Roof Coatings & Painting in 2011 is entitled to workers’ compensation for injuries received in a fall. The worker was injured on May 6, 2011, when he fell from a roof, striking his head and injuring his right knee and left ankle. The accident reportedly occurred several days after the contracting company hired the worker. In October of the same year, the injured party filed a workers’ compensation claim despite that he was allegedly hired as an independent contractor. The owner of the company claimed that no employment relationship existed between the two parties when the incident occurred as an independent agreement was never signed. However, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania disagreed, ruling in the injured party’s favor. The story indicates that the injured party “might have” signed the agreement after his release from the hospital, but the court says it does not matter. Since the contract was not signed prior to the accident, it places the injured worker in the realm of employee rather than independent contractor.