Courtroom Weekly: Wiretaps, immigrants and healthcare benefits

Courtroom Weekly the latest and greatest in court cases around the nation

January 10, 2013

by: the State Court Staff

CALIFORNIA

California Superior Court Judge okays release of files of child molestation cases against Los Angeles priests

Court: Superior Court of Los Angeles County, California

Judge Emilie Harris Elias, of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, ruled that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles could no longer hold back names of church officials accused of child molestation. An earlier ruling by the former federal Judge Dickran Tevrizian had allowed for priests facing only a single allegation of abuse to have their names censured from the general public. The accused priests argued that their privacy rights would be violated by the release of such documents. Judge Elias commented during one of the case's hearings, “ Don't you think the public has a right to know ... what was going on in their own church? ”

GEORGIA

MICHIGAN

Same-Sex Partners of Michigan Civil Service Commission Get Healthcare Benefits

Court: Michigan Court of Appeals

The Michigan Court of Appeals decided on January 9 to uphold a Michigan Civil Service Commission policy allowing same-sex partners of employees to receive healthcare benefits through the state. When presented with similar cases, lower courts in the state refused to endorse such policies, saying they violated the 2004 decision of Michigan voters to define marriage as being between one man and one woman. Michigan Civil Service and other state entities had created policies allowing roommates of employees to receive healthcare benefits. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette said the use of the term "roommates" was meant to circumvent the marriage issue while granting same-sex partners state-funded benefits. The Court of Appeals disagreed, stating that the policy is "gender neutral" and does not attempt to define the closeness of the relationship between the employee and the third-party; the two must merely share the same residence. The decision was not unanimous, the vote being 2 to 1.

NEBRASKA

Injured illegal immigrant entitled to workers' compensation

Court: Nebraska Supreme Court

The Nebraska Supreme Court has ruled that an illegal immigrant injured on the job is entitled to workers' compensation benefits. The employee in the case, Ricardo Moyero, was injured when a forklift ran over his foot as he worked at an Omaha pork processing facility in 2008. Moyero is permanently disabled as a result of the incident, suffering a painful nerve disorder along with severe back and hip pain, and he needs a crutch or cane to walk. Under the court's decision, Moyera's employers will be required to pay him an estimated $2 million over the rest of his life, to cover lost wages and medical expenses. In the opinion, Justice William Connolly "followed the lead of other courts cross the country," reasoning that "excluding undocumented workers from disability benefits [would] creat[e] a financial incentive to hire illegal immigrants." In addition, the court pointed out that by its own language, Nebraska's workers' compensation statute applies simply to "aliens," with no explicit requirement that they be in the United States legally; according to the opinion, "'if it was the intent of the Nebraska Legislature to exclude illegal aliens from the definition of covered employees or workers, it could have easily included a modifier doing so in the statute, but the Legislature did not.'" The opinion did draw a distinction between disability compensation and vocational rehabilitation for illegal aliens, however. Paying disability benefits to injured employees, whatever their immigration status, reflects the fact that they are unable to obtain work anywhere, whether in the U.S. or abroad. Rehabilitation services, on the other hand, are intended to help injured workers move into different careers; if an employee's immigration status means that he is not eligible to return to work, then a workers' compensation court cannot order that employee to be retrained to take up a different career.

WEST VIRGINIA

West Virginia judge tackles truancy

Court: Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, West Virginia

Prior to 2012, truancy cases were shared among all judges on the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit in West Virginia's Kanawha County. However, one judge on the court, Louis 'Duke' Bloom, opted to take over all truancy cases involving elementary school students starting last school year. Judge Bloom believes that good school attendance and involvement now can lead to less interactions with the court system in the future, so he has made an effort to increase consequences against parents with truant children. First offenses can lead to probation and a fine, second offenses can result in jail time or loss of custody if there are underlying factors impacting school attendance. Bloom says that the next few weeks will be instrumental in determining if the increased attention to truancy cases in the past year is having an effect. Last year, there were approximately 400 truancy cases filed in Kanawha County courts; truancy rates generally increase during the second half of the school year, after the holidays.

See also

• Courtroom Weekly