Court Rules Former NFL Player Entitled to Benefits for Achilles Injury
- The Appellate Court of Maryland ruled that Curtis Brooks, a former Washington Commanders defensive lineman who ruptured his Achilles tendon three days into training camp in August 2023, is entitled to workers’ compensation benefits despite never making the active roster or playing in a game.
- The Maryland Workers’ Compensation Commission initially rejected Brooks’ claim, finding he wasn’t a covered employee in the state since his injury occurred at the team’s Ashburn, Virginia training facility, but a Prince George’s County Circuit Court reversed that decision, reasoning that the Commanders’ primary employment location and home games are at Northwest Stadium in Maryland.
- The Commanders argued Brooks’ employment wasn’t “consistent and predictable” in Maryland given his brief three-day tenure before the injury, but the three-judge appellate panel, in an opinion by Judge Stuart R. Berger, declined to speculate about how many games Brooks might have played in the state, calling any such threshold an “inexact estimation.”
- Brooks’ contract covered the full 2023 NFL season and entitled him to medical care for injuries sustained while performing his duties.
Court Upholds Dismissal of PTSD Claim Over Workplace Harassment
- Louisiana’s Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal upheld the dismissal of a workers’ compensation claim filed by a former Human Resources Director for Blue Sky Hospitality Solutions, who alleged she suffered a compensable mental injury from workplace stress and a hostile work environment in 2024.
- She alleged discrimination, retaliation, hostile work environment, pay discrimination, FMLA interference, defamation and wrongful termination, and submitted medical records showing a subsequent PTSD diagnosis, but the court found her claim legally deficient regardless of whether the underlying facts were true.
- Under Louisiana law, a mental injury caused by workplace stress is only compensable if it results from a “sudden, unexpected, and extraordinary” stressor proven by clear and convincing evidence. The court found that the woman’s allegations of gradual, weeks-long harassment did not meet that standard.
- The court also affirmed earlier rulings denying her motions for partial default judgment, further discovery, and sanctions, finding no error in how the lower workers’ compensation court handled those matters before ultimately granting summary judgment to her employer and its insurer, Berkshire Hathaway Homestate Companies.
Chronic Delays, Not Denials ‘Main Threat’ to Injured Workers
- Attorney Nicole Brenecki argues that procedural delay, rather than outright denial, has become the biggest threat to New York’s workers’ compensation system, illustrating the point through a client, whose January 2024 injury claim was labeled “expedited” yet took more than two and a half years to resolve through repeated hearings, translator errors, and additional evidence requests.
- After a Workers’ Compensation Law Judge ruled in the worker’s favor in August 2025, the insurance carrier appealed, and the worker waited nearly another year for the Appellate Board to affirm the original decision in August this year.
- However, the resulting payment fell short by a five-figure amount, forcing yet another hearing just to collect benefits the worker had already been awarded.
- Brenecki contrasts this experience with the Workers’ Compensation Board’s 2025 Annual Report, which touts faster hearing scheduling (averaging 35 to 37 days) and technological improvements, but notes that of 244,714 hearings held in 2025, only about 68% resolved all issues presented.