Nursing assistant can pursue COVID comp claim: Appeals Court
Reprints
An Alabama appellate court ruled Wednesday that a trial court wrongly dismissed a workers compensation claim filed by a nursing assistant who said she was left permanently disabled after contracting COVID-19 at the nursing home where she worked.
The Court of Civil Appeals ruled the trial judge improperly found that COVID-19 was not compensable under state law when it ruled for the employer, Opp Health and Rehabilitation LLC.
Rena Meeks filed a workers comp claim in May 2021, saying she suffered injuries to her lungs and airway that left her permanently disabled.
The company challenged the claim as non-compensable, and the trial court agreed.
Ms. Meeks argued in her appeal that her condition was compensable as a “non-accidental injury.”
The appellate court ruled that Ms. Meeks was entitled to pursue her claim because her job duties exposed her to a “danger or risk materially in excess of that to which people are normally exposed in their everyday lives.”
The case was remanded for further proceedings.
