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Workers' Compensation Benefits
The federal Workers' Compensation Act and state statutes provide benefits to employees. Under most statutes, employers are required to carry workers' compensation insurance for employees to protect them in case of injury. A work-related injury or illness is covered by workers' compensation insurance regardless of fault or negligence of the employer or another party. Also, when an employee accepts workers' compensation benefits, he or she gives up the right to sue the employer for injuries sustained. An exception would be in cases where the employer intentionally caused the employee's injuries or otherwise acted in a criminal manor. In these types of circumstances, employees may have a claim against their employers in addition to receiving workers compensation benefits for their injuries. The employer's workers' compensation insurance policy also gives the employer peace of mind against defending employee injury claims.
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What is Uninsured or Underinsured Motorist Coverage?
Most states have statutes that require insurance companies to offer uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage as a part of each automobile/vehicle insurance plan. In most jurisdictions, an individual may be considered underinsured when his or her insurance policy coverage is not enough to fund the full amount of damages he or she is liable for due to an accident or other event covered by his or her policy. In other jurisdictions, a person is considered underinsured when his or her insurance coverage maximum is less than the coverage maximum of the other individual’s (in the accident) policy. Of course, uninsured persons are those that do not carry automobile liability insurance. The purpose of uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage is to protect against situations where one party to the accident does not carry enough insurance or does not carry insurance at all. Therefore, the intent of mandatory uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage is to protect people against monetarily irresponsible individuals who have injured others, due to their own fault, while operating an automobile. If the uninsured or underinsured individual is not at fault, most underinsured/uninsured motorist policies will not apply.
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Case Summaries
[06/25]
Crescent Towing & Salvage Co. v. Chios Beauty MV
In an action for damages sustained when defendant's ship collided with plaintiffs' barges and tugboats during Hurricane Katrina, partial judgment for plaintiff is affirmed in part where the district court did not clearly err in its finding of a predicted "direct hit" on New Orleans by the hurricane, its factual findings based on this finding, and the ultimate finding of negligence to the extent that it relied upon this finding. However, the matter is remanded where the district court needed to enter an order setting the total amount of recovery plaintiffs could recover in rem.
[06/25]
Bagby Elevator Co. v. Schindler Elevator Corp.
In an action for tortious interference with contract, judgment for plaintiff is affirmed where: 1) under the court's highly deferential standard of review, there was no reversible error in the district court's decision to use the pattern jury instruction; 2) there was sufficient evidence of both malice and gross negligence to support an award of exemplary damages; and 3) there was ample evidence of causation to support the verdict.
[06/25]
Lal v. State of Cal.
In an action against the California Highway Patrol and certain officers for the shooting death of plaintiff's husband, dismissal of the action with prejudice under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(b) for failure to prosecute when her attorney failed to meet deadlines and attend hearings is reversed where an attorney's gross negligence constituted an extraordinary circumstance warranting relief from a judgment dismissing the case for failure to prosecute under Rule 41(b).
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