Lawsuit over sexual assault aboard Navy transport ship dismissed as worker’s comp issue
The order handed down this month closed an attempt by a civilian engineer to get justice for an assault she said threw her life into shambles.
Sexual assault is normal workplace risk in USN according to court
- Thread starter jimbob
- Start date
theprestige
Penultimate Amazing
To be clear, there was also a criminal investigation.
I am not sure this is a loss, since it gives her compensation. It may actually be a win for women if this stands, it will mean all women assaulted at work (and of course men) may be able to claim workplace compensation. The fact that the act was criminal, doesn't mean the employer shouldn't be responsible for interactions between employees. This ruling would appear to be more broadly applicable than just the military as she was a civilian employee.
Lawsuit over sexual assault aboard Navy transport ship dismissed as worker’s comp issue
The order handed down this month closed an attempt by a civilian engineer to get justice for an assault she said threw her life into shambles.www.stripes.com
ETA
I wouldn't be surprised if this is appealed.
Norman Alexander
Penultimate Amazing
I would hope the compensation claim starts at $1 trillion. A couple of those and Heggie will have some 'splainin' to do while licking Trump's boots (gack).
theprestige
Penultimate Amazing
He'd probably just explain that the whole thing transpired during the Biden administration, and point out that it's kind of weird that stripes.com waited until Biden had been out of office for two years before they published.
ponderingturtle
Orthogonal Vector
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2006
- Messages
- 54,796
It is almost as if there was a legal decision.
alfaniner
Penultimate Amazing
I didn't read the article, but it seems like there would be cases (more, in fact), where it's solely males involved.
The law seems to be that if you are covered by workers comp you can't sue the employer, you get sick pay (2/3), medical costs, disability pay off if necessary. It is obviously easier and quicker to get compensation than to sue.
The assailant can be sued of course.
There was a case (in Texas where else) where the court ruled PTSD was not an injury that was covered because PTSD is not an injury. In that particular case there was no doubt that the cause was a work place explosion where the employee twice re-entered a burning building to help the firemen switch off the chemical pipelines. The employer got three psychiatrists to review him to try and get one to say it wasn't PTSD and the cause wasn't what happened at work. Eventually the got a judge to say PTSD wasn't a work place injury.
Federal law is likely to differ from texas law, but clearly PTSD was a very significant component of her injury, I just hope for her sake the US DoW doesn't go down the line of saying PTSD isn't an injury. But who knows with the present SoW.
ponderingturtle
Orthogonal Vector
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2006
- Messages
- 54,796
Why people not celebrating the rape? Rape was a big bonus point to them about dosing the troops with testosterone. Many pundits were quite tickled with how much the women around these men will be assaulted.
Thermal
August Member
As others say, I don't think this was ruled a 'normal' workplace hazard. The specific damages are compensated through workmans comp, because, well, they happened in the workplace and that's the established financial remedy, as far as it goes. Criminal and civil damages are still on the table, not shot down by this ruling.
novaphile
Quester of Doglets
It's not his boots that they have to lick.
(Apologies for all the mental images caused by the above.)
No federal law does exempt injuries resulting from criminal activity by the injured person.