On Mysterious Deaths

What happens when a man is murdered on the job, but no one (except, perhaps, the at-large murderer) knows the motive for the slaying?  Enrique Vicente Rincon, deceased, was working in a liquor store when a hooded man walked in and shot him.  The gunshot wound resulted in Mr. Rincon’s death and the hooded gunman escaped.

The widow filed a claim for death benefits (Rincon v. South Bay Liquor & Market), and the defendant elected to put the issue of Arising Out of Employment/Course of Employment on trial.

The defense conceded COE, recognizing that the death causing injury occurred while Mr. Rincon was on the job.  But what was the motive for the murder?  If it was a personal vendetta against Mr. Vincent, then it can hardly be AOE – an ex-girlfriend, a driver cut off the day before, an angry neighbor in the final stage of the Hatfield – McCoy feud.  None of these have to do with the job, and should not be compensable (also known as the “personal risk” doctrine).

The investigating police officers could only speculate – it could have been a gang initiation, or a robbery in which the robber lost his nerve (explained by the fact that no money was taken during the crime).  There was really no way to know, unless the murderer was caught, or at least identified.

The Workers’ Compensation Judge applied the “mysterious circumstances” doctrine, holding that, because the motive for the murder was unknown, the death must be presumed to satisfy both the AOE and the COE requirements for finding the injury compensable.

The Workers Compensation Appeals Board adopted and incorporated the WCJ’s opinion.

Sometimes, nothing can be done – the facts aren’t there or there is no way to get them.  But in cases like these, the employer needs to do an even better job investigating the case than the police.

Who had a motive to kill the employee?  Facebook, e-mails, cell phone logs (and texts) should all be subpoenaed.  The only real restraint on the thoroughness of the investigation should be the cost (with no medical treatment and statutory caps on recovery, the limits are easy to see).

Mr. Rincon is the tragic victim of a terrible murder.  Unfortunately, the employer was victimized by California’s Workers’ Compensation system as well.

WCDefenseCA is 200 Posts Strong!

WCDefenseCA is happy to celebrate it’s 200th post!  Thank you to my dear readers who have subscribed, e-mailed, called, visited, re-visited, and declined to note the obvious.  (You call this a blog?  Where are the pictures of cats doing funny things?  Isn’t that what the internet is for?)  WCDefenseCA’s readership is somewhat of a (very well informed) club.  To celebrate, today’s post is about another kind of club…

One of the stories making the news is that of a state correctional officer who claimed his gunshot wound, sustained while in a San Francisco “sex club,” was industrial in nature.  (Honestly, folks, I don’t make these up!)

The correctional officer, while engaged in his duties as a prison bus driver, was spotted by a parolee, a violent felon, who then proceeded to shoot the officer.  At least, that was the officer’s theory.

The prosecutor in the officer’s attempted perjury case had a different one – the officer was engaged in a… well… in an act with another club patron’s “female companion,” while that club patron was engaged in what was likely a similar act with the officer’s wife.  An argument broke out and the result was the officer’s injury.  Not exactly industrial, even if the shooter was never caught and the cause of the shooting was “mysterious.”

The jury found both the officer and his wife guilty of attempted perjury.

Thanks for reading!

Jealousy and Death on the Job

When workplace violence occurs, and when employees are injured, who has to pay?  Well, the answer, often enough, lies not in the “who” but in the “why” – what was the motive for the violence.  As we saw in a previous post, sometimes the motive for a workplace murder remains a mystery, and in those cases the applicant’s surviving dependents can usually recover a death benefit, the workers’ compensation system giving them the benefit of the doubt.

In one recent case, Mariela Paredes (Deceased), Efren Caprio v. Ralph J. Maiello DDS, Inc., applicant’s mother was murdered by her widower when he came to the dental office where she worked and opened fire, shooting four people and killing her.  You may have even seen this one in the news.

The decedent’s widower, the one pulling the trigger, discovered that she had been having an affair with a co-worker, having been informed by family members who worked with the deceased.  His own investigation revealed over 5000 minutes of cell-phone conversation between the two and one nude photo sent by his wife to the man she was having an affair with.

Decedent’s widower made threatening phone calls to the phone number on the cell phone records, and repeatedly made comments to the effect he was going to come to her office and do something.  Decedent persuaded her co-workers that he was not actually going to do anything, but was just blowing off steam with empty talk.

After decedent’s murder, the applicant’s guardian ad litem pursued a claim for death benefits, claiming that the death was sustained in the course of and arising out of employment.

The attorney for the defense argued that the death was not a result of anything work-related, but was purely personal in nature, a position with which the workers’ compensation Judge agreed.

The bottom line in this case is that the connection to the employment was pure coincidental – decedent’s widower had tried to catch her in the act away from work, but was not able to do so.  Because there is no real connection between the injury/death and the employment, other than an accidental stage, the injury itself is non-industrial.

But what about the three other shooting victims?  If they have no connection to decedent’s widower, are their claims industrial? We’ll have to wait until we see those claims come forward.