HB2011 SFAT Trump 3-10

Kleeh 7824

            Senator Trump moved to amend the bill by striking out the title and substituting therefor a new title, to read as follows:

            Eng. Com. Sub. for House Bill No. 2011--A Bill to amend and reenact §23-4-2 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating generally to a workplace employee injury caused by the deliberate intention of the employer required for the employer to lose immunity from a lawsuit; defining actual knowledge; eliminating obsolete language referring to the West Virginia Workers Compensation Fund and board of managers; establishing standards related to blood tests administered after accident; providing that intoxication shown by a positive blood test for alcohol or drugs that meet certain thresholds is the proximate cause of any injury; clarifying provisions outlining who may assert claims on behalf of an employee under this section; requiring that a claim for worker’s compensation benefits be filed prior to bringing a cause of action under this section unless good cause is shown; providing that actual knowledge must be specifically proven by the employee or other person seeking to recover under this section and shall not be deemed or presumed; providing an employee may prove actual knowledge by evidence of an employer’s intentional or deliberate failure to conduct a legally required inspection, audit or assessment; establishing actual knowledge is not established by what an employee’s immediate supervisor or management personnel should have known had they exercised reasonable care or been more diligent; establishing that proof of actual knowledge of prior accidents, near misses, safety complaints or citations must be proven by documentary or other credible evidence; defining a commonly accepted and well-known safety standard within the industry or business of the employer; exempting certain codes or standards from applying to Volunteer Fire Departments, Municipal Fire Departments and Emergency Medical Response Personnel if those entities have followed rules promulgated by the Fire Commission; requiring that if the unsafe working condition relates to a violation of a state or federal safety provision that safety provision must address the specific work, working conditions and hazards involved; establishing that the applicability of state or federal safety provisions is a matter for judicial determination; defining generally serious compensable injury; establishing four categories of serious compensable injury including an injury rated at a whole person impairment of at least thirteen percent (13%) and other threshold requirements, an injury or condition likely to result in death within eighteen (18) months from the date of the filing of the complaint, an injury not capable of whole person impairment if it causes permanent serious disfigurement, causes permanent loss or significant impairment of function of any bodily organ or system, or results in objectively verifiable bilateral or multi-level dermatomal radiculopathy and is not a physical injury that has no objective medical evidence to support a diagnosis, or if an employee suffers from complicated pneumoconiosis or pulmonary massive fibrosis and that condition has resulted in an impairment rating of at least fifteen percent (15%); establishing certification requirements for the categories of serious compensable injury; requiring that a verified statement submitted from a person with knowledge and expertise of the workplace safety, statutes, rules, regulations and consensus industry standards specifically applicable to the industry and workplace involved in an injury be served with any complaint asserting certain causes of action brought under this section; providing for the minimum contents of the required verified statement; limiting the use of the required verified statement during litigation; providing for consideration of bifurcation of discovery in certain circumstances; and establishing the venue in which claims under this section may be brought.

Adopted

Rejected