More on Covid and Asbestos
Happy Friday dear readers!
Another week is winding down – a special hello and thank you to all the wonderful people that made the WCRC conference in Dana Point such a memorable one, particularly as it had been so long since your humble blogger risked venturing out to gather with his fellow workers’ compensation creatures. Hopefully, dear readers, our paths will cross at the conference next years.
In any case, if you can’t hang out with the humble blogger right this moment, perhaps I can interest you in a humble blogpost instead?
Well, let’s talk about the most-cursed beer in the world right now: Corona! Your humble blogger theorized in this blog post that industrial COVID deaths resulting in transmission to and death of the employee’s family members could possibly follow the path of asbestos and pursue remedies against the employer in civil court rather than through the workers’ compensation system. Well, the Kuciemba case seemed to shut that theory down, granting defendant’s petition for dismissal.
Now a different case is working it way through the court system: Matilde Ek v. See’s Candies Inc. Plaintiff Ms. Ek was an employee of See’s Candies Inc. where she allegedly contracted Covid19. She brought Covid home to her family, and her husbanded sadly passed as a result of the infection.
See’s Candies (my favorite is the dark cherry in chocolate, and if it’s not your favorite then, sadly, dear reader, you are wrong) sought a demurrer, arguing that any of Ms. Ek’s claims are derivivate of her workers’ compensation claims, and must be confined to the realm of workers’ compensation. Ms. Ek’s attorneys argued, however, that despite her being a vector for the disease, she was claiming damages distinct from her own Covid suffering, but based on the death of her husband.
The case is now up on appeal as to whether a demurrer is appropriate, as the trial level court denied defendant’s demurrer.
In other words, dear readers, if you’ve been thinking to yourself that you really wish there were 2am TV commercials looking for clients who may have gotten COVID from a family member who got it from work… you are in luck! Have a great weekend!