California Court Provides Guidance On “Point Of Operation Guard” Exception Under Workers’ Compensation Law
Posted on Aug 9, 2014
A California appellate court dismissed an action brought under a state law exception to the workers’ compensation exclusivity rule, by which an employee may sue his employer if he was “injured as a result of the employer’s knowing removal of, or knowing failure to install, a point of operation guard on a power press.” The dismissal further defined a “point of operation guard” under the exception, explaining that it was limited only to “[a]ny apparatus or device that keeps a worker’s hands or other body parts outside of the area where the die shapes material by impact or pressure while the...
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Sixth Circuit Rejects Argument That ALJ Required To Explain How Aboveground Mining Conditions Were Substantially Similar To Underground Mine
Posted on Aug 8, 2014
To establish a rebuttable presumption of pneumoconiosis, a claimant can prove that he or she has a totally disabling respiratory or pulmonary impairment and spent at least 15 years working in an underground coal mine or “in coal mines other than underground mines in conditions substantially similar to those in underground mines.” 20 C.F.R. § 718.305(b)(1). The U.S. Department of Labor issued the following regulation in 2013 further explaining the requisite proof: “The conditions in a mine other than an underground mine will be considered ‘substantially similar’ to those in an underground...
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PHMSA Issues Final Rule Prohibiting Hazmat Operations By Persons With Unpaid Civil Penalties
Posted on Aug 7, 2014
Yesterday, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) issued a final rule prohibiting companies who fail to pay a civil penalty as ordered, or who fail to abide by a payment agreement, from performing activities regulated by the Hazardous Materials Regulations (49 CFR Parts 171-180) until payment is made. The rulemaking was conducted pursuant to the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act, which amended the Federal Hazardous Material Transportation Law (49 U.S.C. 5101 et seq.) to prohibit a person from engaging in hazardous materials operations if that...
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Case Against Landfill Operator Involving Waste From January Chemical Leak In West Virginia Proceeds
Posted on Aug 7, 2014
The chemical leak that contaminated the drinking water for thousands of residents around Charleston, West Virginia in January continues to spring new litigation despite the owner of the storage site having filed for bankruptcy. One of the nearby county commissions and a town within that county filed suit in May against the operator of a landfill where 228 tons of waste containing the chemicals that contaminated the region’s water supply were stored. The Wall Street journal chronicled the details of the suit in a June article. Yesterday, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of...
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Second Circuit Affirms Summary Judgment Opinion Allocating Financial Responsibility For April 2006 Texas Train Derailment
Posted on Aug 7, 2014
In an April 2006 train derailment near Dallas, much of a train’s cargo, which included tractors, copying machines, and other manufactured goods, was destroyed. The goods were manufactured in Japan, shipped across the Pacific, and loaded onto railcars in California. Following the derailment, the Japanese insurers, who were subrogees of the cargo owners, filed suit against the railroads to recover damages. The case originally proceeded focusing on the plaintiffs’ federal causes of action under the Carmack Amendment, which addresses carrier liability for lost or damaged goods in interstate...
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Missouri Federal Court Finds Injury Claims Preempted By FDCA’s Medical Device Amendments
Posted on Aug 7, 2014
The defendant manufacturer of a medical device was sued after complications arose from a surgery in which the medical device had been used in an “off-label” manner. The plaintiff’s suit asserted claims for “(1) manufacturing defect, (2) design defect, (3) failure to warn, (4) negligence, (5) strict liability (excluding design defect), (6) breach of express warranty, (7) fraudulent misrepresentation and fraud in the inducement, (8) fraud by concealment, (9) misrepresentation, (10) negligence per se, and (11) violations of the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act.” Ruling on a motion to...
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Fines And Jail Time Follow Dumping Fracking Wastewater In Violation Of The Clean Water Act
Posted on Aug 6, 2014
An Ohio federal judge sentenced the former owner of an oil and gas services contractor to 28 months in jail and ordered him to pay a $25,000 fine for dumping fracking wastewater in violation of the Clean Water Act (CWA). The defendant had pled guilty to one count of making an unpermitted discharge for ordering an employee to discharge the fracking wastewater more than 30 times over a three-month period at a facility in Youngstown, Ohio, which had fifty-eight 20,000-gallon tanks of the wastewater. The defendant had faced the potential maximum of three years in prison and more than $1...
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