Month: October 2020

Virginia Law Exceptions for Protection of Others from Third Parties

A Martindale-Hubbell AV-rated lawyer based in Richmond, VA, Claire C. Carr is a member of the Virginia Bar Association and the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Advisory Conference Steering Committee. Claire C. Carr serves as managing partner of the Workers’ Compensation Practice Group at Kalbaugh, Pfund & Messersmith, PC, and has 30 years of experience in Virginia law.

Virginia law explicitly states that individuals have no obligation to protect others from the actions of another party. However, there are three exceptions to this rule, one of which was recently recognized in the published case A.H. v. Church of God in Christ, Inc., 297 Va. 604 (2019). Prior to this landmark case, the only exceptions involved individuals who either expressed or implied a duty to protect another individual from harm and existing special relationships under Virginia law such as business and customer or innkeeper and guest. In these instances, the business and innkeeper might be duty-bound to protect their respective guests.

The recently published case, meanwhile, recognized a new special relationship between someone deemed to be a “vulnerable individual” in a custodial relationship and their legal guardian. However, because this special relationship is relatively unclear compared to other longstanding relationships under Virginia law, it will be difficult to apply in subsequent cases. This is in large part due to the fact that the Virginia Supreme Court made no attempt to clearly define who might qualify as a “vulnerable individual.”

Virginia COVID-19 Workers’ Comp Expansion Tabled by Senate Committee

A member of the Virginia Bar Association, Claire C. Carr is a shareholder, Vice President and Managing Partner of the Workers’ Compensation Practice Group at Kalbaugh, Pfund & Messersmith, PC, in Richmond, VA. In this regard, lawyer Claire C. Carr defends workers’ compensation claims on behalf of insurance carriers, self-insured companies, employers and third-party administrators before the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission.

Workers’ compensation for healthcare workers, teachers, and first responders who have contracted COVID-19 has become a contentious issue in Virginia. This past July, Virginia’s largest school insurer said school employees who became infected with the novel Coronavirus were unlikely to receive compensation, as COVID-19 is deemed an “ordinary disease of life” as opposed to one that disproportionately affects certain professions. As of September 10, two bills attempting to reclassify the disease as an occupational disease were stalled due to budgetary concerns, despite support from first responders.

The most recent legislation, introduced by Sen. Dick Saslaw, D-Fairfax, was effectively denied by a Virginia Senate Committee over concerns of the estimated $2.7 billion budget shortfall until 2022. Sen. Steve Newman, R-Lynchburg, called the proposed legislation “a well-meaning item,” but expressed fiscal responsibility concerns.