Could Home Improvement Company Employee Cut by Saw in N.H. Seek Vt. Benefits?

Bellows Falls, VT (WorkersCompensation.com) – Whether an employer’s workers’ compensation coverage applies when an employee is injured in another state depends on the state’s WCA–and how courts decide to interpret it. A case involving a company domiciled in Vermont caused that state’s Supreme Court to interpret the reach of Vermont’s workers’ compensation scheme.

The employee in that case worked for a Vermont home improvement company, although he was not hired within the state. That company was in the process of establishing a facility in New Hampshire as well. The employee often traveled from the Vermont offices to worksites outside the state, including one in New Hampshire.

One day, he was at a New Hampshire jobsite when a saw injured his hand. He sought workers’ compensation benefits in Vermont, where the company was incorporated.

The workers’ compensation commissioner denied the claim, based on lack of jurisdiction (or authority) to hear the claim. The commissioner reasoned that the employee did not reside in, was not hired in, and was not injured in Vermont.

The court explained that § 616(a) of the Vermont WCA provides for jurisdiction over workers' compensation claims when the injury occurs in Vermont. The act also contains an exception; the commissioner can hear a case in which the worker was injured outside of the state if he was hired in Vermont.

Did Vermont’s worker's compensation scheme apply to the employee injured across state lines?

A. Yes. He had significant ties to the Vermont office, as he often traveled from there to job sites.

B. No. He was not injured or hired in Vermont.

If you selected B, you agreed with the court in Burnett v. Home Improvement Company of Vermont, No. 23-AP-344 (Vt. 07/24/24), which held that the place of injury controlled the commissioner’s authority to hear the claim.

The court rejected the employee’s contention that it was the employment relationship, rather than the place of injury or the place where the company was incorporated, that determined the commissioner’s power to hear a claim. 

“[I]f the Legislature intended the locus of the employment relationship to control, it would not have included provisions explicitly contemplating circumstances where the employment relationship is based in Vermont, but the injury takes place somewhere else,” the court wrote.

Further, the court noted, basing jurisdiction on where a company is corporated would open up Vermont's workers' compensation scheme to every employee of Vermont's companies, regardless of their residency or relationship to the state. It would also encourage claimants to seek out the best benefits, likely resulting in shopping between states where their employer maintains corporate citizenship. 

The court affirmed the commissioner’s dismissal of the claim for lack of jurisdiction.

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