Workplace Injury
Injuries on the job, especially in Montana, are unfortunately going to happen. If you’ve suffered a major workplace injury, our firm has a long history of assisting individuals and their families with both their traditional workmans’ compensation or occupational disease claim, and creatively maximizing other recoveries that might be available.
For example, in the case of McMillan v U.S., our office went to federal court and secured a multi-million dollar recovery against the U.S. Forest Service based on its logging contract with Mr. McMillan’s employer, from whom we also recovered a traditional multi-million dollar Montana work comp benefit after Mr. McMillan was rendered paraplegic in a logging accident. We spent more than a decade to ensure that Mr. McMillan and his family could be made whole as best as possible after his workplace injury.
Landmark Case:
Occupational Disease / Worker’s Compensation Cases:
McGarvey Law has prevailed in a number of precedent-setting occupational disease cases. We have established law that guides which employer is liable for an occupational disease claim in cases in which there are multiple employers. We have particular experience in claims pertaining to asbestos exposure in Libby, Montana.
Rosling v. Associated Loggers Exchange, 2019 MTWCC 5
The decedent was exposed to Libby asbestos for most of his life and diagnosed with asbestos-related disease almost seven years before working for Respondent’s insured. However, his condition was stable and he continued to work as a logger. After beginning to work for Respondent’s insured, where he suffered a significant exposure to Libby asbestos, decedent’s ARD significantly and rapidly worsened and he ultimately had to quit his job because he could no longer physically perform it. Prior to his death, he filed an OD claim, contending that his ARD was an OD and that he was last injuriously exposed to the hazard of his OD while employed at Respondent’s insured. Respondent asserts that Petitioner did not timely file his claim. In the alternative, Respondent asserts that Petitioner’s employment for its insured did not cause his OD.
Baeth v. Liberty NW Ins. Corp., 2014 MTWCC 10
Petitioner alleges that her work at a plywood plant in Libby from 1989 to March 1994 caused her asbestos-related lung disease. The plant was owned and operated initially by Champion International Co., then was taken over by Stimson Lumber Company in November 1993. Respondent denies that Petitioner suffers from an OD and claims that her respiratory problems are instead related either to COPD or emphysema caused by a long history of smoking. It also argues that even if Petitioner has asbestos-related disease, her non-employment exposure was greater than her exposure during her employment, and that she is judicially estopped from claiming an OD. Petitioner alleges she is entitled to attorney fees and a penalty.
Atchley v. Louisiana Pacific Corp., 2018 MTWCC 17
Petitioner seeks death benefits from Respondent, contending that her husband died from asbestos-related disease and that his last injurious exposure to Libby asbestos occurred in the course of his 9-year employment at Respondent’s lumbermill, which was located approximately 2 miles outside of Libby. Respondent denied Petitioner’s claim, contending that the decedent was not exposed to an injurious amount of Libby asbestos while working at its mill and did not develop asbestos-related disease as a result of working at its lumbermill.