Happy Monday, dear readers!

I know you’ve come here, ravenously hungry for some minor diatribe from your humble blogger about how life is unfair and the WCAB should be more receptive to my arguments and theories.  That is why you’re here… right?

Well, I just want to take a moment to pause and appreciate that we are here on the first of March, 2021.  Just think where you were one year ago.  Cruises were suddenly cancelling, there was a strange strain of the flu, and somehow everyone was worried about a Chinese virus named after a Mexican beer that could only be kept at bay by hoarding toilet paper to the magnitude of several lifetimes.  I wish I could go back and warn the 2020 humble blogger of what was to come.  But, sadly, I can’t.

Well, your humble blogger was privileged to write a short piece for the Workers’ Comp Executive discussing the possibility of COVID19 lawsuits analogous to the old asbestos cases, wherein family members of asbestos workers could sue based on a theory of breathing in asbestos left on the work clothes of employees returning home from work.  The fact that no employer-employee relationship existed between an asbestos worker’s employer and the asbestos worker’s family members didn’t bar such suits.

Couldn’t the family member of an employee who got COVID19 at work and brought it home sue in the same fashion?  That was the claim made by a husband and wife couple in San Francisco, which alleged that the husband’s employer violated various safety guidelines, resulting in the husband being exposed to and contracting Covid, and then spreading that infection to his wife.

The case was dismissed, giving the plaintiffs a chance to amend, so it’s not clear if the case or this theory will ultimately prevail.  However, the blood is in the water now, and, speaking for all the lawyer sharks out there, this is unlikely to be over.  Although the Order grating dismissal is very binding for this particular case, we’re likely to see more attempts such as this to squeeze employers for workers’ comp benefits AND civil tort benefits.

Now, why is your humble blogger wasting your precious time with this?  Because, the atmosphere in the defense community, speaking with colleagues and opposing counsel, seems to be one of complacency regarding resisting COVID19 claims.  Since the typical course of COVID19 seems to be a few days of flu, a few days of quarantine, and then back to business as usual, some employers are just eating the very limited exposure and moving on.

Efforts such as this should give employers pause and remind us all of the merits of investing in a thorough investigation.  Admitting the link between work and the first COVID infection makes it a lot easier to establish that it was spread at home.

Just think, dear readers, how great things will be looking when we revisit this blog post on March 1, of 2022.

Have a good week!