By Darren Heitner, Esq.
In early June 2011, an insurance company filed a Complaint for Declaratory Judgment in the U.S. District Court in Denver, Colorado, naming nine retired Denver Broncos players along with the organization as defendants. Each of the nine retired players had made claims against the Denver Broncos for workers’ compensation benefits in excess of $100,000. Those claims were brought in the State of California, as a result of injuries that the retired players’ alleged were sustained in that state. The insurer claims that the Broncos’ policies do not provide coverage for the California claims.
Former Denver Broncos players are not the only savvy retired players who have come to realize that it behooves them to file their workers’ compensation claims in the State of California. A recent article in the Orlando Sentinel examines the workers’ compensation filings of members of the Jacksonville Jaguars. From the period of 1995-2009, the Jaguars played a total of five games in the State of California. However, a resounding 95 percent of workers’ compensation claims made by individuals who played for the Jaguars during that period were filed in California. The only prerequisite to filing such a claim in the State of California is that the player performed in at least one game in the state. Apparently 95 percent of the Jaguars qualified.
Understandably, the individual professional football teams do not want to cover the cost of the workers’ compensation claims filed in California, but neither do the teams’ insurers. Yet, professional football players put their bodies and livelihoods at risk every time they suit up and take the field. Certainly, they believe that they deserve some fashion of compensation for the injuries they sustain while partaking in activities on the gridiron.
In January 2011, the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) released a report titled, “Dangers of the Game of Football.” In the report, the NFLPA wrote that injuries went from 3.2 per week to 3.7 per week in 2010. Further, 63 percent of NFL players were injured during the 2010 season compared to a 59 percent average from 2002-2009. Of those injuries, 13 percent ended up putting a player on injured reserve.
Injuries are certainly part of the game in the NFL and other professional sports in the United States. However, professional franchises understand that players may be taking advantage of a workers’ compensation system based on the fact that teams engage in interstate commerce and happen to play games against the San Diego Chargers, San Francisco 49ers, and/or Oakland Raiders. This opens each team up to increasing liability should one of their players get injured in a season where the team plays at one of the aforementioned California team’s stadium.
The State of Florida has recently begun to take action to protect its teams, and it is likely that other states will follow suit.
For a long time, professional athletes who were playing for teams based in Florida, but injured while playing a game outside of the state, were able to take advantage of a loophole that allowed those players to seek workers compensation claims in other states. Injured athletes would take advantage of this loophole to file claims in states with workers compensation laws that were much more preferable than Florida’s. California has, and continues to maintain, the most preferable workers’ compensation laws for those who have a valid claim.
However, a new bill titled, Reciprocity of Workers’ Compensation Claims, was passed by a vote of 39-0 in the Florida Senate and 117-0 in the Florida House of Representatives. If approved by Governor Rick Scott, it will take effect on July 1, 2011. If it becomes law, it will prevent Florida workers from pursuing workers’ compensation claims in other states when they are injured while temporarily working outside of Florida. Instead, the injured person will be entitled to the benefits as if the employee were injured in Florida. Temporary work is defined as working outside of Florida for 10 days in a row or less, or working outside of the state for less than 25 days in a calendar year. Further, if an employee from another state is injured while temporarily in Florida, the exclusive remedy against the employer are the workers’ compensation laws of the other state.
What is most telling about the legislation is the summary provided on the Florida Senate’s website, which states, “Recently, however, a number of Florida employees, most notably former professional athletes, have begun to file for benefits under the workers’ compensation laws of other states, particularly California.” This clearly shows that the legislators crafted the bill with the increasing number of out-of-state workers’ compensation claim filings in mind. The professional sports franchises in Florida are strong supporters of the legislation; players associations are not so thrilled with it.
Darren Heitner, Esq. is the founder of Dynasty Athlete Representation and the creator of the Sports Agent Blog (www.sportsagentblog.com). A graduate from the University of Florida Levin College of Law, Heitner has appeared as a speaker and panelist, discussing sports law issues, at many institutions of higher education, including Princeton University, Indiana University, and multiple law schools across the United States. He can be reached at dheitner@dynastyreps.com
