Missouri Unions Suffer Setback in Challenge to Workers’ Comp Law

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The Missouri Supreme Court recently rejected labor union challenges to a 2005 law that limited the ability of some injured workers to get benefits under the workers’ compensation system.

Business groups praised the court decision as a victory, though it was largely a technical one. The Supreme Court ruled that most of the labor union arguments were hypothetical and thus not ripe for a court to decide.

Chief Justice Laura Denvir Stith was joined by Judges Mary Russell and Patricia Breckenridge in stating that it was premature to address the constitutional validity of the provisions. They said such claims would depend on the particular circumstances of an injured person, and the union suit did not include any injured individuals.

But the trio of judges did declare that people excluded from participating in the workers’ compensation system because of a narrower definition of “accidental injury” under the 2005 law now could sue in court to try to win damages from their employers.

The 2005 amendments to the law were a priority for former Gov. Matt Blunt and the Republican-led Legislature, who claimed the system had become tilted against employers. Among other things, the 2005 law required workers to show a “specific event during a single work shift” to be compensated for an accident, no longer allowing a “series of events” to qualify. It also required the accident to be “the prevailing factor” in an injury, instead of the previous standard of a person’s employment as “a substantial factor.”

During last year’s arguments, labor attorney Alan Mandel, of St. Louis, described the law as “the most draconian statute in the country.” He denounced various provisions as “egregious” and “horrendous.” By contrast, business attorney Marc Ellinger, of Jefferson City, argued that the 2005 law merely returned a proper balance between employers and employees to a system that had been skewed toward employees by previous court rulings.