Brazil court convicts 2 firefighters in nightclub fire
Headline Legal News
A court on Wednesday convicted and sentenced two firefighters to a year behind bars in connection with a 2013 nightclub fire that killed more than 200 people in southern Brazil.
The two and six other firefighters had been charged with negligence and falsifying public documents related to the club's fire permit. Prosecutor Joel Dutra successfully argued that the court should drop charges against the other six, saying they had been "induced to error by unclear norms that gave room to different interpretations."
Lawyers for the convicted men said they would appeal.
The fire in January 2013 at the Kiss nightclub in the city of Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul state, killed 242 young men and women, all suffocated by toxic smoke that filled a windowless building with no emergency exits.
Soundproofing foam on the ceiling caught fire in the overcrowded nightclub when the lead singer of a country band onstage lit a flare as part of an illegal indoor pyrotechnics show.
Investigators said the burning foam released cyanide, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide that quickly killed those attending a university party. Dozens of bodies were piled in twisted knots inside the club as hundreds of people stampeded through darkness, trying to reach a single row of four doors that served as both entry and exit. Aside from the dead, 630 people were injured.
The nightclub's two owners and two band members blamed for starting the fire face homicide charges, but are free pending trial. A guilty verdict could bring a prison sentence of up to 30 years, although the complexity of Brazil's legal system and the ability to present numerous appeals means several years can elapse before someone convicted of a crime is put behind bars.
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Workers’ Compensation Subrogation of Administrative Fees and Costs
When a worker covered by workers’ compensation makes a claim against a third party, the workers’ compensation insurance retains the right to subrogate against any recovery from that third party for all benefits paid to or on behalf of a claimant injured at work. When subrogating for more than basic medical and indemnity benefits, the Texas workers’ compensation subrogation statute provides that “the net amount recovered by a claimant in a third‑party action shall be used to reimburse the carrier for benefits, including medical benefits that have been paid for the compensable injury.” TX Labor Code § 417.002.
In fact, all 50 states provide for similar subrogation. However, none of them precisely outlines which payments or costs paid by a compensation carrier constitute “compensation” and can be recovered. The result is industry-wide confusion and an ongoing debate and argument with claimants’ attorneys over what can and can’t be included in a carrier’s lien for recovery purposes.
In addition to medical expenses, death benefits, funeral costs and/or indemnity benefits for lost wages and loss of earning capacity resulting from a compensable injury, workers’ compensation insurance carriers also expend considerable dollars for case management costs, medical bill audit fees, rehabilitation benefits, nurse case worker fees, and other similar fees. They also incur other expenses in conjunction with the handling and adjusting of workers’ compensation claims. Workers’ compensation carriers typically assert, of course, that, they are entitled to reimbursement for such expenditures when it recovers its workers’ compensation lien. Injured workers and their attorneys disagree.