Posted on 09/13/2005 12:33:49 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
...The justices voted 6 to 1 in favor of the decision.
Judge Glenn T. Harrell Jr. dissented, stating in his opinion that the law refers only to minors when it says that workers "whether lawfully or unlawfully employed" are covered by workers' compensation benefits.
Several states across the country have issued similar rulings in favor of workers, said Lagos' attorney, Del. Luiz S. Simmons, a Montgomery County Democrat.
The attorney for Design Kitchen and Baths could not be reached for comment.
Lagos, who is from Argentina, injured his left hand cutting wood on the job on Aug. 20, 2001.
The injury required him to have two surgeries and left him "temporarily totally disabled" from May 14, 2002, to June 17, according to court documents.
But Simmons said that "many of the undocumented folks are the ones losing their limbs, losing their eyes. ... When there is a trench that collapses, invariably you are going to find someone at the bottom of the pile who does not have a green card."
Undocumented workers are often exposed in the highest-risk jobs, Simmons said, adding that the ruling will benefit those workers, too.
The case of Design Kitchen and Baths v. Lagos began in 2001 at the Maryland Workers' Compensation Commission, which ruled that Lagos was eligible to receive workers' compensation benefits.
The Circuit Court for Montgomery County later affirmed that ruling, according to court documents.
The case then went to the Maryland Court of Appeals and has been pending since February 2004, Simmons said.
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
That's crap.
Well if that's the issue it sounds like the majority is just taking the law literally. Somebody needs to fix that law.
Or fix the problem of illegal workers.
the ILLEGAL folks
Undocumented folks? Where I come from, they're called illegal alien lawbreakers.
Thanks to the "help" of...
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Employers hire illegals because they're cheap and compliant.
When they become neither, employers will either find illegals from another country, or hire Americans.
So, if employers can be made to think that hiring illegals is going to cost them more than it's worth, that's a good thing.
If the black-letter law provides for compensation for people "whether lawfully or unlawfully employed," it means what it says. Changing that wording is a matter for the legislature, not the courts. For Harrell to decide on his own, in the face of a clearly-worded statute, that the language thereof applies only to minors is nothing more or less than judicial activism. And we're against that, right?
The solution to a dumbass law is to repeal or amend it, not to appeal to judges to ignore it. It's hardly consistent to rail against "activist judges" and then berate the Maryland judges for being insufficiently activist in overturning or reinterpreting the law as passed by elected representatives of the people.
Am I railing?
The people do need to look at what laws are being passed by their representatives in government.
Not you in particular. My point was more general, that a lot of folks who are angered by activist judges get just as angry when judges aren't activist enough in service of their favorite causes.
The people do need to look at what laws are being passed by their representatives in government.
Absolutely. And they don't need to look to judges to "fix" the laws the representatives "got wrong," which is precisely what conservatives have accused liberals of for the last four decades. You don't defeat an opponent by emulating him.
The ruling stinks, just as much as the 14th being used to legitimize anchor babies.
But you are right. The silver lining is that employers who think they are saving money with Illegal labor are finding out (the hard way) they are not.
The employer should be heavily fined and forced to pay the illegal's lost wages and his bus fare back to his country of origin.
Bump!
The result being - that cost will be passed on to us, the consumer.
What needs to be corrected is how we allow this labor force to enter and stay in the country. Immigration needs limits, controls and enforced laws. Illegal entry needs to be stopped.
Simply amazing how many 'mental midgets' there are making law in this country.
Illegal aliens should be deported. Since they committed crime by working here, they surely should not be given workmans comp. Any who applies should be arrested on the spot and deported.
Interesting logic.
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