Iowa Workers' Compensation

In Andover Volunteer Fire Department & Travelers Ins. Co. v. Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance Co. , 2010 WL 3186153 (Iowa, No. 08-1628 Aug. 13, 2010), the Supreme Court allocated risk between two insurance companies.  The claimant in the underlying case, Justin Faur, was an employee of Johnson Valley Beef as well as a volunteer firefighter for the Andover VFD.  On the date of the injury, Justin was attempting to rescue a co-employee who had been overcome by methane fumes at Johnson Valley Beef.  At about the same time as Justin was attempting to rescue the co-worker, he was paged by the VFD to the scene of the accident.  Both the co-worker and Justin died as a result of the accident. Grinnell Mutual, which was the insurance carrier for Johnson Valley Beef, paid the claim and sought contribution or indemnity from Travelers, the carrier for the Andover VFD.  Grinnell claimed that Justin had been "summoned to duty as a volunteer firefighter" under 85.61(7)(a) of t...

The appellate courts have had a surfeit of rate cases before them recently, and in Hilltop Care Center v. Burton, 2010 WL 2598373 (No. 0-323 June 30, 2010), the court decided another such case.  The rate dispute was premised on a unique factual situation.  Ms. Burton was supposed to receive a raise, which amounted to $1,000 per year, but was instead paid an additional $1,000 per month, thus raising her income by $12,000 on a yearly basis.  She was allegedly overpaid for the last 15 months she worked for the employer.  Apparently, the error was not discovered until Ms. Burton filed unemployment papers following her discharge by the employer. The deputy concluded that claimant should have been paid on the basis of her actual earnings, not on the basis of what her wages should have been.  The commissioner affirmed.  On judicial review, the district court reversed, finding that "an accounting error is not tantamount to an entitlement to an elevated wage." ...