Odd Workers’ Compensation Cases
Posted September 14th, 2018 by Anthony Carbone, PC.
Categories: Workers Compensation.
Laws involving workers’ compensation in New Jersey are pretty complex. If you don’t heed by the law on how to file, your claim may be denied. When you are counting on this extra money to pay for bills and expenses, you could easily fall behind.
Injuries that occur in the workplace come in all shapes and sizes. You may trip over an unsuspecting package that was left on the floor, you could fall off a broken chair, or you may even hurt your back from picking up an extremely heavy object. But sometimes, there are very peculiar injuries that may occur on the job. How these cases are won makes things even stranger.
Odd Workplace Injuries
After hearing about different workers’ comp cases over the years and some online research to back it up, we have found a few odd cases that have boggled our minds.
Our first case is a story about a broken hip. Sounds normal, yet it’s anything but. A ninety-year-old Circuit City employee filed a workers’ comp claim after he fractured his hip on a vending machine. The employee was trying to shake the vending machine to get a bag of chips that had gotten stuck for another co-worker (he claimed). An arbitrator ruled in favor of the employee because he was “injured while coming to the aid of a co-worker seeking personal comfort.”
The next example comes from a pizza parlor in Iowa. A pizza delivery man had just returned from his deliveries at the same time another employee was being chased out by employees and management. When crossing paths, the two became involved in an altercation and the delivery man suffered a punctured lung. The employer argued that the injuries were sustained outside of employment, but the appellate court had a different opinion and ruled in favor of the employee.
You probably won’t believe this next one. A J.C. Penney employee was walking out of her garage when she tripped over her dog and broke her wrist. The woman claimed she was leaving to go pick up some materials for her job when the incident occurred. Since the woman was retrieving work materials and storing them in her garage, this made her home a work environment. She was compensated for her broken wrist.
Our last example comes from South Dakota, where a construction worker broke his leg when attempting to jump over a trench during some free time he and his fellow co-workers had during the workday. The worker claimed that one of his co-workers said someone wanted to talk to him on the other side of the trench but realized the co-worker lied when no one was there. On his way back to confront his co-worker, he jumped over a trench breaking his leg on the landing. The construction worker was awarded workers’ comp benefits.
Contact Attorney Carbone If You Are Injured
Whether you believe it or not, these stories above are real-life examples of workplace injuries. If you are injured at work, no matter how unbelievable the injury is, the Law Offices of Anthony Carbone may be able to help recover compensation. Contact our firm today for a free evaluation of your workers’ compensation matter.
