Wife of former Texas trucking magnate in workers comp scheme
- Francis Hall, the former co-owner of Bill Hall Jr. Trucking turned herself into Bexar County, Texas, authorities after a grand jury indicted her for fraud.
- The Texas Department of Insurance, Division of Workers’ Compensation discovered Hall allegedly provided false payroll information to Texas Mutual Insurance Company.
- She also concealed payroll reports to get lower insurance premiums on their extensive gravel hauling business.
- The scheme allowed the company and its owners to avoid more than $9 million in premium payments.
Employees critically injured in New Mexico explosion
- Two workers were critically injured in an explosion at a Smith’s grocery store in Northwest Albuquerque.
- The employees suffered significant burn injuries and were taken to the hospital after they were doing scheduled maintenance on an HVAC compressor when it exploded.
- Something malfunctioned and that’s what caused the explosion, authorities said.
- Fire crews doused a small fire in the maintenance room where the explosion was reported.
N.J. contractor charges for fatality
- A contractor who allegedly ignored warnings that a retaining wall could collapse at a Poughkeepsie, N.Y., construction site was charged by U.S. Attorney Damian Williams.
- An employee of Finbar O’Neill and Onekey LLC of Hackensack, N.J., was killed when he was crushed by the wall.
- The accident happened in August 2017 at the former A.C. Dutton Lumber Co.
- Onekey, the owner and developer of the site, was in the process of building 300 apartments in a group of buildings at One Dutchess Avenue next to the Hudson River.
Colorado deputy who nearly died from COVID denied workers comp
- A sheriff’s deputy in Mesa County, Colo., is suing the third-party benefits administrator that denied his workers’ compensation claim after he almost died from COVID complications.
- Travis Crawford, 34, alleged that Tristar Risk Management, a workers’ compensation insurance company, “unreasonably denied (Crawford’s) workers’ compensation claim.”
- He also claims the company violated a law that prohibits insurers from denying claims without conducting a reasonable investigation based on all available information.
- Tristar Risk Management declined to discuss the case, citing privacy issues.