Liberty Seeks NC Court Asbestos Re-Look

Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. and Continental Tire are pressing the North Carolina Supreme Court to review a recent appellate ruling tied to asbestos-related workers’ compensation disputes.
The case stems from a series of “bellwether” trials at the North Carolina Industrial Commission.
In those cases, the Commission sided with Continental and dismissed workers’ comp claims, ruling the plaintiffs had not proven factory conditions exposed them to asbestos at levels sufficient to cause their diseases.
Most plaintiffs dropped their complaints after those five bellwether decisions, but 14 chose to press ahead.
The appellate panel held that the remaining plaintiffs should have a chance to present new evidence.
In their petition, Liberty Mutual and Continental said the appeals court essentially invented a new rule that conflicts with existing state precedent.
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Hawkeye Waste Systems, an Iowa company ordered by a judge to stop operations earlier this month because it didn’t have workers’ compensation insurance has now provided proof of insurance and can continue operating.
The company was ordered earlier this month to stop operating or employing anyone because it didn’t have WC insurance.
A year ago, OSHA and the Iowa Division of Workers’ Compensation investigated an earlier accident and found the business was operating without workers’ compensation insurance.
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The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania on Wednesday granted workers compensation benefits to a firefighter who was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after having to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation on two infants who died in his care.
In reversing a state Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board’s ruling that an Upper Darby Township firefighter’s mental condition was not compensable, as both the board and a judge said providing CPR is not an abnormal working condition for a first responder.
The latest ruling cited witness testimony from doctors and other career firefighters that witnessing two infants die within 16 months is considered “rare,” as documented in No. 770 C.D. 2024.
Wednesday’s ruling also said that newly enacted state law “specifically addresses claims for post-traumatic stress injuries suffered by first responders and provides a claim for a PTSD injury suffered by a first responder who undergoes a qualifying traumatic event sustained in the course and scope of his employment as a first responder and, notably, indicates the injury ‘shall not be required to be the result of an abnormal working condition to be a compensable injury.’”
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