Ron Meuser, Mary Beth Boyce and Ashley Biermann of Meuser Law Office, P.A. were proud and honored to speak at the St. Paul Firefighters IAFF Local 21 Union membership meeting on June 6th & 7th, 2017 held in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The St. Paul Firefighters Local 21 has been representing St. Paul’s bravest since 1918. They are dedicated to making sure their members have the safest working conditions, fair wages and benefits, and provide the best fire, rescue and paramedic services in Minnesota.

The superseding intervening cause defense is one of the few defenses in Minnesota workers’ compensation law that can result in a complete bar to all benefits claimed that are attributable to the superseding event. The next natural question is, what is a superseding cause? Insurers argue that a wide range of activities constitute a superseding intervening cause, but that does not mean the court will agree. The central question to determine whether the event was a superseding intervening cause is, was the employee acting unreasonably when the event occurred? If the employee is deemed to have been acting unreasonably when the event occurred, the event will be deemed to be an independent cause of disability and the employee will lose all workers’ compensation benefits.