Sometimes appeals are premature...case decided 8/7/08

This case just decided indicates the parties could not push the appeal along. The case, to date, decides that a traveling claimant who contracted West Nile virus while working in Colorado may be covered under workers comp while living and working in Colorado under the travel status doctrine. At first the claimant lost but he appealed to the Industrial Claim Appeals panel. The panel said the first judge had not correctly applied the law when he said the claimant had to contract it during work hours. In any event the next appeal goes to the Court of Appeals who said it was too early to decide the case because the panel had remanded it back down to have the judge take further action. This makes it premature as no benefits were yet ordered. It looks like the parties then tried to agree on a way to try to keep the appeal going but it did not work. I suspect the appeal will crank out all over again since the parties were trying to expedite it and not have to go through it again. The case took over 2 years to get to where it is now with more still to come! Read the case here.