Injured Worker Recovers Weekly Benefits for Hard Metal Disease Contracted in the Carbide Industry.

Hard metal disease, sometimes described as interstitial fibrosis, is a devastating pulmonary condition. We have represented a number of clients in the carbide industry, over the years, who have contracted this insidious and crippling disease. The tungsten carbide utilized to manufacture drill bits and grinding wheels and other high density products settles into the lung causing scarring and restriction of the air sacs. The culprit is usually the cobalt which is utilized in the process. Even when carbide manufacturers implement reasonable safety procedures to avoid the problem, the disease may strike vulnerable individuals. From our experience, short-term or long-term employees can contract the disease. Smokers and non-smokers may acquire the disease.

We have found that it is critical to have our clients examined and treated by pulmonologists - physicians who specialize in pulmonary medicine.

There is only one way to halt the progression of the disease; namely, removal from the exposure to the ingredients of tungsten carbide.

Widow and Children are Covered by a Structured Settlement when Husband/Father is Killed in Pennsylvania Truck Driving Accident.

Our client was fatally injured when he lost control of his rig outside of Pittsburgh, PA. He lived in Ohio with his wife and children. Under the Pennsylvania Workers' Compensation Act, his widow would be entitled to a portion of his weekly compensation benefit for her lifetime or until she remarried and/or co-habitated. At that point, she would be entitled to an additional two years of weekly checks, and the checks would stop. Our client's children would be entitled to a portion of his weekly income until each of them reached age 18, or if enrolled in an institution of higher learning, until the age of 23. (If any one of the children was disabled, that child's benefit would continue until the disability ceased.)

Our client's widow was interested in a future weekly benefit. Our office negotiated with the trucking company, and, eventually, came up with a proposal that paid a lump sum of money to the widow, along with periodic lump sum payments to the age of 65. We also obtained lump sum payouts to the children.

Since the widow was receiving Social Security Disability benefits for her children, she was comfortable giving up the weekly check from workers' compensation in order to have larger payouts over time. This also provided her the peace of mind to know that her children would receive payouts in order to pay for a college education or technical school education down the road.

The use of periodic lump sum and/or monthly payments is called a "structured settlement". A structured settlement is not right for every case; however, as in the above case, it provided long-term financial security for the widow and her children.

All Over-the-Road Truck Drivers who are injured in Pennsylvania are covered by the Pennsylvania Workers' Compensation Act.

Did you know that if you are an over-the-road truck driver who travels to many states around the nation, you may still be covered by the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act? Our office represented a truck driver who was hired by an Ohio trucking company. Our client was injured in New Stanton, Pennsylvania, and lived in Blairsville, Pennsylvania. The Ohio trucking company did not carry Pennsylvania workers’ compensation insurance. The trucking company owned a parking lot in West Virginia, enabling it to purchase cheaper workers’ compensation insurance under West Virginia law. As a result, the trucking company started to pay our client West Virginia workers’ compensation benefits.

Because he was injured in Pennsylvania, we believed that our client was entitled to be paid under the Pennsylvania workers’ compensation law. We filed a Pennsylvania workers’ compensation claim. The trucking company fought our claim, alleging that the injury was covered by the "extraterritorial" provision of the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act. Our argument was that the extraterritorial clause only applied to workers who were injured outside of Pennsylvania.

After a 10-year struggle, leading the whole way to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, we won the case. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court announced that any worker injured in Pennsylvania is covered by the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act.

In summary, it doesn’t matter where you live. It doesn’t matter where you were hired. It doesn’t matter where your employer is headquartered. If you are driving your rig through Pennsylvania and are injured, you are covered by our workers’ compensation law. This is very significant, because many states like West Virginia, Texas, and Ohio are geared to protect the trucking company and not the injured worker. Pennsylvania gives more complete protection to the injured worker.