Workers' compensation can be a gray area of the law, as many Ohio employees and employers know. When a worker dies while on the job, the employer is not necessarily at fault. For example, if an employee suffers an accident not related to assigned job duties, then the employer may not be held liable. There are other factors that must be taken into consideration as well, including the employee's overall health. This was what the court did when a woman died on the job and her husband sued for workers' compensation benefits.
The 47-year-old woman was working from home when she died not long after working a 10-hour overnight shift. Her husband claims that the sedentary nature of the job caused the woman to suffer a pulmonary embolism - a blood clot in her lung. The woman - a 25-year veteran at AT&T - was allegedly under a deadline to finish a project the morning that she died.
Even though a lower court judge agreed that the woman's job caused the blood clot, the New Jersey Supreme Court recently reversed that decision. The judge claimed that the woman's duties - primarily answering phone calls and sending and receiving emails - did not force her to stay in one place for the entire 10-hour shift. In addition, a doctor testified that the woman was obese - weighing more than 300 pounds - and took birth control pills. In addition, her age and enlarged heart were contributing factors.
Unfortunately, there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to workers' compensation. There can be a great deal of discretion to decide in which cases to award benefits. In this case, there were too many existing health issues in play and not enough evidence to prove that unsafe working conditions directly caused the blood clot.
Source: NJ.com, "N.J. family denied workers' comp after mother died following 10 hours behind desk, high court rules," Brent Johnson, July 30, 2014
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