Justia Missouri Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

This workers' compensation appeal raised the question of whether the fifteen-percent statutory violation penalty under Mo. Rev. Stat. 287.120.4 applies to an employee's (claimant) compensation award from the Second Injury Fund (SIF). The ALJ here refused to award the claimant additional benefits, determining that the fifteen-percent penalty under section 287.120.4 was not applicable to enhance the claimant's award. The Labor and Industrial Relations Commission found that the fifteen-percent penalty applied to the compensation awards entered by the ALJ. The Supreme Court affirmed as modified, holding that the section 287.120.4 penalty was inapplicable to the award that claimant received from the SIF. View "Hornbeck v. Spectra Painting, Inc." on Justia Law

Ruth Mendenhall appealed a summary judgment in favor of Property and Casualty Insurance Company of Hartford on her equitable garnishment claim seeking insurance coverage for the death of her husband, Len Mendenhall. The trial court's judgment was premised on the conclusion that Len was an "employee" under the terms of the Hartford policy and, therefore, was excluded from coverage. The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the trial court, holding that, given the facts of this case and the policy language, Len was not an "employee" but was instead a "temporary worker" subject to coverage under the terms of the Hartford policy. View "Mendenhall v. Prop. & Cas. Ins. Co. of Hartford" on Justia Law

Deborah Gervich appealed the decision of the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission denying her workers' compensation benefits as a dependent of her deceased husband, Gary Gervich. The Commission found that Gary's right to permanent total disability benefits terminated at the time of his death because his wife's right to such benefits had not "vested" prior to the 2008 statutory amendments that eliminated dependents from the definition of "employee" in Mo. Rev. Stat. 287.020.1. The Supreme Court reversed, holding (1) the statutes in effect at the time of Gary's injury governed, and under those statutes, the dependents of an injured worker, who was entitled to permanent total disability benefits and who died of causes unrelated to the work injury, are included within the definition of "employee"; (2) therefore, such dependents are entitled to continuing permanent total disability benefits; and (3) because an employee's dependents are determined at the time of the injury and include the spouse of an injured worker, the Commission was not authorized by law to deny such benefits to Deborah. View "Gervich v. Condaire, Inc." on Justia Law

Arnaz Crawford was fired from his job in January 2009. Crawford subsequently applied for Social Security disability benefits (SSDI benefits) due to a mental condition, but the social security administration (Administration) denied the claim. Meanwhile, Crawford applied for state unemployment benefits. The division of employment security (Division) awarded unemployment benefits to Crawford until March 20, 2010. On March 2, 2010, the Administration determined Crawford had been disabled and eligible for SSDI benefits since January 29, 2009. The Division subsequently determined (1) Crawford was unable to work from December 20, 2009 to March 20, 2010 and, therefore, was ineligible for unemployment compensation benefits; and (2) Crawford had received $3,080 in benefits that he was ineligible to receive. The labor and industrial relations commission (Commission) affirmed the determination that Crawford was ineligible for unemployment compensation benefits. The Supreme Court (1) reversed the Commission's decisions to the extent they authorized the Division to collect the overpayment from Crawford; but (2) otherwise affirmed the Commission's decision. View "Crawford v. Div. of Employment Sec." on Justia Law

The Labor and Industrial Relations Commission denied Appellant unemployment benefits after it found that Appellant engaged in willful misconduct by repeatedly and deliberately disregarding her supervisor's instructions. Appellant appealed, arguing that the Commission erred in finding that she engaged in misconduct because although she may have acted negligently, she did not deliberately violate her supervisor's instructions. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that competent and substantial evidence supported the Commission's finding that Appellant willfully failed to follow her supervisor's instructions, although able to do so, on eleven separate occasions after her supervisor warned her three times she needed to comply with the instructions. View "Fendler v. Hudson Servs." on Justia Law

Lonnie Lewis died when the tractor trailer in which he was a passenger overturned. The driver of the truck, Nathan Gilmore, was employed by Buddy Freeman, and Freeman operated the tractor trailer pursuant to a contract with DOT Transportation. Neither Freedman nor DOT carried workers' compensation insurance. Lewis' dependents filed a claim for workers' compensation against Freeman and DOT and a wrongful death action against Freeman and Gilmore. An ALJ entered an award in favor of Lewis' dependents. After the entry of the workers' compensation award, DOT intervened in the Lewises' wrongful death action. The circuit court granted summary judgment in favor of Gilmore and Freeman, finding the wrongful death action was barred because the Lewises had made an election of remedies when they obtained a workers' compensation award against DOT. The Supreme Court reversed, holding that the Lewises' civil action against Freeman was not barred by their workers' compensation award from DOT, as Mo. Rev. Stat. 287.280 allowed the Lewises to proceed in a civil action against Freeman as a result of his failure to insure his liability under the Missouri workers' compensation laws even though the Lewises obtained a workers' compensation award against DOT. View "Lewis v. Gilmore" on Justia Law

Sandy Johme was employed by St. John's Mercy Healthcare as a billing representative, and her work involved typing charges at a computer in an office. After making a pot of coffee at an office kitchen at work, Johme fell and injured herself. Johme was "clocked-in" as an employee at the time of her fall. The Labor and Industrial Relations Commission awarded workers' compensation benefits to Johme after applying Mo. Rev. Stat. 287.020.3(2). The Supreme Court reversed the Commission's decision, holding that Johme was not entitled to workers' compensation benefits because she failed to show that her injury arose out of and in the course of her employment as specified in section 287.020.3(2). View "Johme v. St. John's Mercy Healthcare" on Justia Law

On November 7 2006, Courtney George was elected prosecuting attorney for Phelps County. George did not receive any salary increases during her term in office despite a report issued by the Missouri Citizens' Commission on Compensation for Elected Officials on December 1, 2006 increasing the salary for associate circuit judges in 2007 and 2008. In 2010, George filed a petition for a writ of mandamus against the elected members of the county commission and others (Respondents), requesting a preliminary order compelling Respondents to approve increased compensation rates and to issue her underpayment of her salary for the duration of her term in office. The circuit court issued a preliminary order in mandamus but later quashed the order. At issue on appeal was whether a midterm increase in compensation for a full-time prosecuting attorney violates the provision of the Missouri Constitution prohibiting the compensation of government officers from being increased during the term of office. The Supreme Court made permanent the preliminary writ of mandamus, holding that because the midterm increase in compensation in this case resulted from the application of a statutory formula for calculating compensation in place before George took office, the increase did not violate the Constitution. View "State ex rel. George v. Verkamp" on Justia Law

Michael Patton filed a two-count personal injury action under the Federal Employers' Liability Act against his employer, BNSF Railway Company, alleging that BNSF negligently required him to perform heavy manual labor in extreme heat and, as a result, he lost consciousness and fell, and that striking his head in the fall caused him to suffer subsequent reoccurring seizures and fainting spells. To bolster its defense that Patton's injuries were caused by prescription drug use, BNSF sought discovery of records held by Patton's treating psychiatrist. The trial court issued a protective order preventing the discovery of the records. The Supreme Court granted a writ of mandamus ordering the trial court to lift its protective order, holding (1) the trial court abused its discretion in holding that discovery of the records of a treating psychiatrist is precluded entirely where, as here, the plaintiff alleges only physical rather than psychological injury; and (2) BNSF showed that it had reason to believe that discovery of treatment records held by Patton's psychiatrist was calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence on its theory of causation. Remanded. View "State ex rel. BNSF Ry. Co. v. Judge Neill " on Justia Law