Governor Newsom has issued an executive order establishing a workers’ compensation Covid-19 presumption in California. Key introductory points are that the presumption appears to apply to most if not all employees, it is rebuttable, and it is temporary, expiring sixty
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Novel Smithfield Foods Public Nuisance Suit Dismissed Without Prejudice
In what for me is an ominous development the Smithfield Foods public nuisance case, about which I blogged below, has been summarily denied by a Missouri federal district court and the case has been dismissed.The decision took all of…
The Public Nuisance Litigation in a Smithfield Foods Meatpacking Case: Workers’ Compensation Implications?
As Senate Republicans and corporations continue to lobby for the broadest possible “liability shields” in connection with the Great Reopening, a novel lawsuit framed in terms of public nuisance theory is being litigated in a Missouri federal court. From the…
President Orders Continued Meat Production: And Then There’s the 13th Amendment
White Swans and the Pesky Constitution: Reopening of the Economy at Any Cost?
One of my favorite commentators, Nassim Taleb, thinks the Covid-19 Experience is a White Swan, not a black one. (He predicted the event – or one a lot like it – back in 2007. And I am under the impression…
Potential Issues When Workers’ Compensation Doesn’t Apply to a Covid-19 Claim
It is elementary that workers’ compensation is the quid pro quo for a tort claim. One consequence of this principle is that where a state’s workers’ compensation law categorically excludes certain claims from coverage there is a non-frivolous argument that…
Remote Law Teaching During Pandemic: Permanent Partial Benefits No Easier to Explain
To say that this is a challenging semester in which to be teaching law is an understatement. Each of us is facing unprecedented obstacles; and in my little corner of the world I am presented with the dilemma of trying…
Center for Progressive Reform Post on Workers’ Compensation and Coronavirus
I'm cross-posting here from the Center for Progressive Reform Blog my discussion–geared for a general audience–some of the interplay between the coronavirus and workers' compensation. I've joined the CPR as a member-scholar and aim to regularly highlight workers' compensation and…
Covid-19, Strikes, and Intentional Employer Misconduct: A Descent Into the Maelstrom?
I have recently been working on a law review article about work stoppages and strikes in the “new” economy. Some readers may not be aware that Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act protects the right of both union…
Gig Battles Roll On in Midst of Covid-19 and Uncle Sam to the Rescue
According to the New York Times, platform companies continue to battle AB-5 in California, “investing tens of millions of dollars in a November ballot initiative that would effectively exempt them from it . . . “[and as] the companies’…