WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Vt. to Pay $493K in Workers' Comp Case

Vt. to Pay $493K in Workers' Comp Case

Montpelier, Vermont - September 11, 2009

The state of Vermont just lost a workers' compensation case and will have to pay a state employee half a million dollars. The case involved a Vt. Transportation Agency employee-- Frank Hall. He said he faced discrimination and was demoted after he hurt himself on the job. He did not want to talk about the case because he still works for the state in another role and is worried about retribution. But we found several former state employees who testified at the trial who were willing to talk publicly.

"I'm very happy he won this case," said Debby Ogden, a former employee of the Vt. Transportation Agency.

Ogden handled workers' compensation claims for the transportation agency just before Frank Hall was first injured.

Hall was a three-decade employee who rose through ranks to be the garage foreman in Williamstown. In 2002 he fell down a bank while picking up garbage. It damaged his knee requiring an artificial one. He filed a workers' comp claim. The 60-year-old was demoted to a maintenance worker and then aggravated his knee again, filing another workers' comp report. Hall says he was retaliated against and a jury agreed-- ruling the state must pay him $493,000.

Reporter Kristin Carlson: What do you remember from working there-- comments that would be said about workers' comp claims and the people who made them?

Ogden: Let's fire them-- they can't do their job.

"There was simply no evidence of retaliation against Mr. Hall," Caroline Earle said.

Earle defended the state and leads the Civil Division in the Attorney General's office. Despite the demotion, Earle says there is no proof of retribution; no one testified that they witnessed direct comments about Hall.

"Unfortunately we believe the one claim the jury ended up deciding against the state is a claim they probably never should have been allowed to decide. It was a claim involving workers' comp retaliation and Mr. Hall had never been denied a workers' comp claim the entire time he was with the state," Earle said.

"I should have fought but I didn't," said Pat Chamberlain of Barre.

Chamberlain worked for the transportation agency in 2000 and says he was discriminated against after making two workers' comp claims. He never sued-- but testified for Frank Hall.

"The day I filled out the action report I was told to find a new job. And from then on it was don't get hurt again you will be fired," Chamberlain said. "I'm glad Frank got what he got and maybe it will bring to light that there are issues in the state of Vermont that need to be corrected with personnel."

The leadership has changed in that transportation district since Frank Hall's lawsuit. WCAX called the transportation agency to talk to them about this and they referred us to the state's lawyer Caroline Earle.

Workers' comp retaliation cases against the state are rare. The attorney general's office says in the past ten years, no one could remember a workers' comp retaliation claim being filed against the state. But workers in the story say most people often don't want to come forward.

And this is not over. Next week the state plans to ask the judge to review the case and dismiss the jury's decision.

Kristin Carlson - WCAX News