Amid Public Pressure, Salem Drops Appeal and Settles Widow's Claim

The Salem City Council authorized a $550,000 Claim Disposition Agreement to settle a workers’ compensation claim for the widow of firefighter Maurice Stadeli.
The city previously contested the claim following Stadeli’s 2019 death from cancer before withdrawing its appeal in 2023.
Under the settlement, the city will pay $85,000 from its self-insurance fund.
The state and excess carrier insurance will cover the remaining $134,000 and $331,000, respectively.

In the Wagner v. Arizona Municipal Risk Retention Pool, the court dealt a blow to a workers’ comp claimant by ruling that the municipal insurance pool is a “public entity.”
This creates a massive hurdle because injured workers must now file a formal notice within a strict deadline before they can ever sue for bad faith.
The court also protected the third-party administrator (TPA), ruling they can’t be sued individually for how they handle a workers’ comp file.
Ultimately, the worker’s entire workers’ comp lawsuit was dismissed simply because they didn’t treat the insurance pool like a government agency.

In the Matter of Brady v Town of Warwick, a New York appellate court affirmed that the claimant’s death effectively abated several disputed workers’ compensation claims.
The ruling established that these unadjudicated claims could not be pursued because the employee’s passing prevented the necessary development of a medical record.
Consequently, the Workers’ Compensation Board was not legally required to continue proceedings for these contested injuries.
This decision reinforces that specific New York legal standards regarding claim abatement apply when a worker dies before a case is settled.