In Benjamin Amoah v.s Mallah Management LLC , New York's 3rd Judicial Department of the State Supreme Court's Appellate Division upheld an April 2005 finding by a NY State Workers Comp Board that an illegal alien's use of fraudulent documents to get a job does not eliminate him from collecting workers compensation benefits.
Mr Amoah, a citizen of Ghana, applied for and was hired as a parking garage attendant using the drivers license and social security card of an acquaintance. Mr Amoah suffered an injury in April 2005, although court records do not describe the nature of the injury. He was awarded workers comp benefits. Soon thereafter, Mr Amoah notified the workers compensation carrier of his real identity at which point the carrier contested the benefits because the claimant used fraudulent documents to obtain his job.
The insurer and the employer argued that federal immigration law outlawing the use of fraudulent documents pre-empts state mandated benefit awards. The Appellate Court stated it had to determine whether federal law on using fraudelent documents pre-empts workers comp law under a doctrine of "conflict pre-emption", essentially trying to establish whether state law obfuscates the intent Congress has set forth. In a Business Insurance article dated 11/24/2008 , Rusty Watts , a Worker's Comp defense attorney at Swift, Currie, McGhee & Heirs LLP stated , " in addition to New York, courts in several other states, including California, Florida, Georgia, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania, have ruled that the Federal Immigration Reform and Control Act adopted in 1986 does NOT preempt state mandates to provide Worker's Comp benefits."
Since Mr Amoah is totally disabled, there is no evidence the award would require him to violate, or continue to violate federal law that may preclude him from returning to work. It's interesting to note that had he not been permanetly disabeld the outcome may have been entirly different. Wage benfits typically are based on a claiments inability to continue to earning a living due to a work related injury or disability, however what happends if the worker cannot return to work due his status as an illegal alien. The current trend is that insurers and employers alike are arguing that they should not have to pay wage benefits or provide light duty employment to illegal immigrants because their inability to work is not due to the injury but the fact that it is illegal to employ immgrants that do not have legal working status in the United States.
According to Bruce C. Wood , associate general counsel & director of workers compensation for the American Insurance Assn in Washington, in an article published in Business Insurance , "Court battles over providing workers comp benefits to illegal immigrants seems to be narrowing around whether employers can stop paying indemnity benefits without retaining workers or providing them with vocational rehabilitation."
Typically the goal is to try and get these injured workers placed back on the job, however doing so is in direct violation fo federal law which creates this conundrum. The American Insurance Association is updating a state by state analysis on benefit entiltlements for Illegal Aliens which we expect to be released in January. I will try and post it once it becomes available.
Thank you to Roberto Ceniceros whose diligent reporting in Business Insurance contributed greatly to this post,. Much of the text and sources were taken from his work.
