My husband works at a desk job. He was asked to escort a delivery
person
through the freight elevators, since he has the proper id badges to
get
through the security. The doors are the ones that close up and down
rather
than traditional elevators whose doors open from side to side. In
order to
close the doors you have to pull a rope which is fastened to the
outside of
the door, and presumably remove your hand before the door slams on
it. What
happened in this case was that the delivery person reached in front
of him,
while my husband was pulling the rope, and "helped" pull the (very
heavy)
door closed. This resulted in extreme momentum of the door and it
slammed
on his hand, crushing his index finger. It broke in 4 places and
ultimately
required surgery. He took the rest of the day to go to the
emergency room.
The next day he was on narcotics for the pain and the following day
he had
surgery to repair the finger.
In total he took off 3 days, plus the remainder of the first day.
His
company is refusing to pay him for these days, saying he has to use
his sick
days (he has none) if he wishes to get paid. Workers Comp in this
state
(AZ) says that there is a 14 day (!!!!!!) waiting period until you
get paid
and then, they only pay you $387 a week until you return to work,
which is
an absolute joke considering what my husband makes.
My question is, how on earth is this legal?
Your worker's comp attorney will tell you whether you were told the
truth about the law.
(see below)
Second, can we sue anyone? The
one lawyer that I called today said that the only way we could sue
is if the
door is found to be faulty. I don't know if it's faulty but it's
very
poorly designed - I mean how can there be no safety features to stop
that
happening??
So find an attorney who agrees that the design is faulty without
safety features and who will take the case on a contingency fee basis.
Also, in some states, the employer is liable outside of the worker's
comp system if they bypassed the safety features, or failed to install
newly developed devices when they found out they were available. Also
your attorney will look for an independant contractor elevator
maintenance company that the employer may have used.
Can we sue the delivery person?
Sure. Find an attorney who agrees that the person's action was
negligent, and who will take the case on a contingency fee basis.
This is really driving my husband crazy. He went back to work
because he
would not be paid otherwise, but he not able to do much with his
right hand
in a cast (he is a computer person). Anyone have any advice?
See workers comp attorney ASAP. They work on contingency and are
almost always able to get more in settlement than the worker/claimant.
Especially in a case like this one, where there may be ongoing medical
expenses and a possiblity of less than 100% use of the finger after
recovery.
McGyver
