Connecticut: Causation Determination under Longshore Act Precludes Re-Litigation of Issue in State Workers’ Compensation Matter

An employer was collaterally estopped from litigating the issue of causation with respect to a death benefits claim filed by the widow of a worker who had been exposed to asbestos during his employment where that issue had already been litigated between the parties in a federal administrative action involving benefits under the Longshore and Harbor Workers Compensation Act. The Court found that the federal causation findings were based on the same substantial factor standard as applied in the state proceeding. The widow's medical expert's testimony that the deceased worker's workplace asbestos exposure was a “substantial contributing cause” of the development of his lung cancer satisfied the substantial factor causation standard.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Filosi v. Elec. Boat Corp., 2018 Conn. LEXIS 280 (Sept. 18, 2018)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 127.07.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law