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Top Ten Vermont Workers’ Compensation Decisions Over the Past Century
Pugh, which was issued on June 28, 1977, and
incorporated into Fox Publishing Company’s Vermont Workmen’s Compensation Law in 1978.
This was the first general publication of Vermont
workers’ compensation decisions. The Publisher’s Preface reads in part that: “We are pleased
to offer this publication in the hope that it will
make easier the work of those involved in the
field of workmen’s compensation law in Vermont. Combined for the first time in any publication for the Vermont area are the following items
within this volume:” Complete text of Vermont
Statutes, Regulations, Supreme Court cases and
“Text of Opinions of the Commissioner as issued
through 1977 and up to August 1978.” Id. Unfortunately, Fox Publishing only published one supplement to this edition in 1980. The Vermont Department of Labor and Industry began retaining
copies of its decisions for review by practitioners
beginning in 1980 with Stevens v Newport Plastics Corp., No. 1-80WC (July 20, 1980). Decisions
were numbered consecutively (although some
numbered decisions are no longer available) until
1982, when the current practice of annual numbering of decisions began with Gadue v. Village
of Essex Junction, No. 1-82WC (Jan. 26, 1982).
Decisions of the Commissioner are currently
available online through the Department’s website beginning with G.H. v Ethan Allen, No.3006WC (July 7, 2006). Whereas the first published
Vermont Supreme Court decision dealing with
Vermont’s Workers’ Compensation Act is Brown
v Bristol Last Block Co., 94 Vt. 123 (1920). Thus,
lost to the mists of time are the very early interpretations of the Vermont Workers’ Compensation Act by the first generation of administrators
and litigators of the Act.
2
No. 6-94WC (Mar. 27, 1994).
3
Id. at 9.
4
130 Vt. 1 (1971).
5
See, e.g., In re Chatham Woods Holdings,
LLC, 184 Vt. 163 (2008) (finding that the Act’s
definition of statutory employer creates a statutory employer/employee relationship where no
such relationship existed at common law); Frazier
v. Preferred Operators, Inc., 177 Vt. 571 (2004)
(concluding that the Act “contemplates broader definition of employer than that established
at common law including indirect corporate employers”); Candido v Polymers, 166 Vt. 15 (1996)
(finding that the definition of statutory employer covers multiple-employer business situations,
such as employee leasing companies, where for
any reason the employee is working for a business indirectly, as well as a direct employer).
6
139 Vt. 31 (1980).
7
Id. at 35 (internal quotations omitted).
8
Id. at 36 (internal quotations omitted).
9
142 Vt. 461 (1983).
10
Id. at 463.
11
Id.
12
144 Vt. 395 (1984).
13
Id. at 401.
14
140 Vt. 564 (1982).
15
Id. at 571
16
Id. at 576
17
Id. at 573
18
Id. at 579
19
Id.
20
165 Vt. 167 (1996).
21
See Janes v. Department of Corrections, No.
121-81 (Feb. 9, 1982).
22
165 Vt. at 169.
23
No. 51-98WC (Aug. 25, 1998).
24
Id. at 7.
25
124 Vt. 95 (1964).
26
Id. at 98.
27
160 Vt. 594 (1993).
28
Id. at 599.
Doing it the old-fashioned way without
goggles and other safety equipment:
quarrier with striking hammer pounding
in “plugs and feathers” (wedges and
shims) to split granite blocks, circa 1895.
Rock of Ages Corporation.
Photograph courtesy of Aldrich Public
Library, Barre, VT
Sandblaster wearing early
protective gear works on etching
granite monument, circa 1925.
Rock of Ages Corporation.
Photograph courtesy of Aldrich
Public Library, Barre, VT
Barre stone shed with men operating
surfacers. Notice the new dust collection
system installed by Granite City Tool Co.,
1930s. Donald Allen.
Photograph courtesy of Aldrich Public
Library, Barre, VT
American Granite Co. pneumatic
hand abrasive grinder in operation,
late 1930s. Donald Allen.
Photograph court