Gordon Johnson v RBX Transportation
Inj. No. 20-094915 D/A Oct 8, 2020
In a case of first impression, The Commission affirms a denial of a claim of injury by occupational disease (Covid), and denies the Fund's motion to dismiss for briefing deficiencies, but supports the denial of benefits as their claim is deriviative. Claimant's argument was fundamentally that other people had Covid at work so he must have contracted it there because he didn't go out in public away from work.
Claimant alleges complications after a covid diagnosis resulting in hospitalization, pneumonia, use of a ventilator, need for a trach, and ultimatley released and dependent on supplemental oxygen. The ratings ranged from 25% (Dr. Cantrell) to PTD (Koprivica). Claimant worked as a driver and night dispatcher and a co-worker who crossed paths for 15 minutes tested positive for Covid around the same time. Prior conditions included poorly controlled diabetes. Testimony was conflicting how often workers wore masks. Claimant asserted minimal contact in the community and asserted his food was delivered.
The ALJ found in Oct. 2020 that covid was an ordinary disease of life. The judge rejected the claimant's argument that calling it a novel virus did not keep it from being an ordianry virus. The ALJ found insufficient evidence that the disease arose out of employment or in course of employment. Claimant failed to show anything inherent in the risk of the job, unlike a job that exposed him to dealing with members of the general public on a daily basis. Claimant argued he had greater exposure at work than at home but the ALJ found that comparison was not a relevant statutory standard. Evidence of simultaenous symptoms did not show a risk source of exposure to someone symptomatic before he developed the disease.
Claimant advanced a theory that he was exposed to someone sick with cold symptoms but lacked evidence to show that exposure was someone who had covid. Second, evidence of other people who had Covid at the same time or after claimant did not show a risk source. A doctor could not identify who had it first when two people presented with symptoms together.
The ALJ identified multiple other states that have rejected Covid claims.
