Kansas high court rules state fund liable for out-of-state nurse’s injury

The Kansas Supreme Court ruled Friday that the Kansas Workers Compensation Fund for uninsured employers must cover the injuries suffered by a nurse who was working in Montana but whose contract was signed in her home state of Kansas by a Montana-based company that did not carry workers compensation coverage in the former state.

Linda Henretty was working as a nurse in Wichita, Kansas, in 2008 when she accepted work as a nurse in Montana with Kalispell, Montana-based Healthcenter Northwest LLC. In 2017, she slipped and fell on ice in a parking lot in Montana, where she received workers compensation benefits and medical treatment for her injuries before returning to her home city, as documented in Henretty v. Healthcenter Northwest.

The legal question raised is whether the Kansas Workers Compensation Fund is responsible for those continuing treatment expenses. The Workers Compensation Appeals Board ruled the Kansas fund was liable, finding that Ms. Henretty’s contract for employment was made in Kansas. The fund appealed, arguing that it should not be liable.

Of issue was where the woman’s employment began, which the state’s highest court ruled that the event took place in Wichita, Kansas, where Ms. Henretty signed her contract before faxing it to Healthcenter Northwest’s offices in Montana. The contract included a $5,000 relocation allowance, which helped the court determine that the contract was set in Kansas.

The court wrote that an administrative law judge, which also ruled in favor of Ms. Henretty, correctly stated, “Respondent’s act of paying for Claimant’s moving expenses is indicative that an employment contract had already been created. … This was a Kansas contract.”