Jump to full article: Law.com, 2008-08-14
Author: Thomas B. Scheffey The Connecticut Law Tribune August 14, 2008
Intro: The Connecticut Supreme Court has ruled that a laborer's lung damage from smoking can be segregated from respiratory problems caused by asbestos work, and his workers' compensation award reduced by the portion of his ailment caused by cigarettes.
Workers' comp plaintiffs lawyers say that before the decision in George Deschenes v. Transco, such blended injuries had consistently resulted in full compensation.
The justices reached their conclusion after a long struggle. The ruling, to be officially released this week, was a reconsideration of a decision issued in the same case last year. The justices tightened some language after considering amicus briefs by lawyers who represent injured workers. . . .
"For the court to judicially create this apportionment where none had been before really caught the attention of a lot of people," said Nathan J. Shafner, of Groton, Conn.'s Embry & Neusner, who co-authored one of four amicus briefs in the case, on behalf of the New England Health Care Employees Union. "We saw this as more than a slippery slope -- this was a runaway train."
Justice Flemming L. Norcott Jr., writing for a unanimous court, saw the question as one that had never been asked before. Whether the Workers' Compensation Act requires official consideration of two separate but concurrent illnesses -- one occupational, the other not -- is a question of first impression, he wrote, and one "that requires us to fill a gap in our statutes." . . .
there was too little information in the court record for the Supreme Court to issue a final ruling. So the case was sent back for further legal proceedings before a different commissioner.
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Quotes from this article:
[E]mployers should not have to bear the costs of their employees' smoking habits.
Connecticut Supreme Court.
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