Work Comp Case Summary

Healing period benefits appropriate when claimant retired shortly after work-related injury. In a workers' compensation case, the Deputy awarded a 35% industrial disability and healing period benefits. The claimant suffered an injury to his knee in 2003, and later injured his shoulder on March 14, 2007. He then retired in April 1, 2007. Regarding the healing period benefits, the defendant argued that benefits were inappropriate because the claimant retired shortly after the injury. The Deputy ultimately awarded healing period benefits, which was affirmed on appeal, because there was substantial evidence that the claimant's retirement was caused, in part, by his workplace injuries.

Iowa Workers' Compensation Commission has jurisdiction over maritime work in marina consisting of routine maintenance. The manager of a marina along the Mississippi river tried to remove a canopy by using the bucket and boom of an excavator. In order to reach the canopy, the manager began driving the excavator down two boat ramps and onto a barge. Before he could get the excavator onto the barge, the ramps slipped, the machine fell into the water, and the manager drowned. His surviving spouse filed a petition for death benefits with the Iowa Workers Compensation Commissioner. The employer answered arguing that the federal Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act (LHWCA) covered the death. The critical question was whether the manager was an employee under the statute, which is defined as "any person engaged in maritime employment . . . but does not include . . . individuals employed by a marina and who are not engaged in construction, replacement or expansion of such marina (except for routine maintenance)." Because the manager's work was considered to be routine maintenance, the LHWCA did not apply, and the Iowa Workers' Compensation Commission had proper jurisdiction.

No. 10-1237. [1-095] BLUFF HARBOR MARINA v. WUNNENBERG