Ohio: Statute Precluding Comp Coverage for Worker Temporarily in the State Does Not Apply to Employee of Texas Non-Subscriber

Like a number of other states, Ohio has a provision in its comp act [ORC Ann. § 4123.54(H)] precluding workers’ compensation coverage for an employee when: (1) the employee is a resident of another state; (2) the employee is insured in a state other than Ohio; and (3) the employee is only temporarily within Ohio when injured. An Ohio appellate court has held that a Florida resident, who worked for a Texas non-subscribing employer as a truck driver, and who was injured while temporarily in Ohio, was not precluded from participating in Ohio’s workers’ compensation system; he was not similarly insured in Texas. It was undisputed that the employer purchased a third-party insurance policy in compliance with Texas law whereby the truck driver received disability income, dismemberment benefits, and payment of his medical expenses. The court held that such coverage under a qualified ERISA plan was not the equivalent of insuring the worker under a state system. The implication is that if the Texas employer had opted to be covered by the Texas Workers’ Compensation Act, the result would have been different.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is a leading commentator and expert on the law of workers’ compensation.

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance. Bracketed citations link to lexis.com.

See Linardos v. Joe Tex, Inc., 2014-Ohio–4522, 2014 Ohio App. LEXIS 4435 (Oct. 13, 2014) [2014-Ohio–4522, 2014 Ohio App. LEXIS 4435 (Oct. 13, 2014)]

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, §§ 102.01, 142.03, 143.02, 143.07 [102.01, 142.03, 143.02, 143.07]

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

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