Tupelo Workers’ Compensation Lawyers

Near Tupelo, Mississippi, a significant worker’s compensation case involved a man serving a 12-year prison sentence for manslaughter. In 2010, just 45 minutes outside of Tupelo, Lonnie Smith of Ripley, Mississippi, suffered injuries on the job after accidentally shocking himself on power lines while working for Tippah Electric Power Association.

Gulf Live reported that “A safety expert for Tippah testified the lines Smith allegedly grabbed were three feet, seven inches apart. The distance, the expert testified, would have made it difficult for Smith to accidentally touch both lines at the same time.” However, the Supreme Court ruled that Smith deserved worker’s compensation—despite his capital murder charges in a separate case later the same year.

Although coworkers attested to Smith’s odd behavior on the day of the incident, potentially because he was aware of imminent capture for his crimes, there was insufficient evidence to prove he grabbed the power lines on purpose in an attempt to commit suicide.

More recently, and closer to Tupelo, a former Verona police officer is waiting on a resolution to her worker’s compensation claim that has been going on for four years. After fighting a man for over ten minutes on a house call in 2017, Stephanie Moffett suffered from contusions, a concussion, cracked teeth, fibromyalgia, and depression. She accrued over $200,000 in medical bills, and the city has paid her only $13,881.41 in worker’s compensation to date.

Daily Journal reported, “‘They stopped paying in 2018,’ Moffett said. ‘There was no justified explanation with the final notice of payment.’ When she returned to work, she was on light duty as a School Resource Officer at Verona Elementary School. She proposed a settlement in the workers’ compensation case in early May and is waiting for a response.”

A similar case was upturned recently when a Texas appeals court found that a former Dallas Cowboys lineman, who received worker’s compensation benefits after sustaining a knee injury, was not a Texas resident at all—but a Mississippian. Alcus Fortenberry was staying in a hotel in Dallas at the time of the injury.

Law 360 reports, “the appellate panel was also unconvinced by arguments from Great Divide Insurance Co., which carries workers’ compensation benefits for the Texas Department of Insurance, that the claims should be tried in Austin because it works with a law firm in the city. ‘Because Fortenberry offered no prima facie proof that he resided in Dallas County for venue purposes on the date of his injury and because Great Divide failed to present prima facie proof it maintains a principal office in Travis County, neither party made the necessary venue showing,’ the panel wrote. ‘Accordingly, we reverse the trial court’s judgment and remand to the trial court to conduct further proceedings on the issue of venue.’”

Fortenberry also didn’t have a compensable disability because of the injury, the court determined.