Mother Loses Custody Due To Her Bizarre Behavior
Recent Cases
A California appeals court affirmed the appointment of a guardian ad litem for a girl whose mother led police on a 12-minute high-speed chase with her 7-month-old daughter in tow, kept feces and urine in jars near the kitchen sink, and told relatives to address her daughter, Esmeralda, as "Andrew," writing the new name on the girl's stomach in felt marker.
Justice McKinster concluded that the San Bernardino County Court violated Marlene G.'s due-process rights by appointing the guardian ad litem, but said the violation was harmless, because Marlene would probably have lost her parental rights, anyway.
After the high-speech police chase, Marlene was arrested, declared competent to stand trial and jailed for child endangerment. She later refused to take antibiotics for a fever that could have spread to her infant daughter.
She told the county Department of Children's Services that "she was hearing voices telling her that others are trying to break into her home and kill her."
She also mentioned Esmeralda likes to eat peanut butter and chocolate, though relatives said she was feeding her daughter peanut butter mixed with feces.
A psychological evaluation revealed that Marlene "feels sad, thinks of death, has racing thoughts, has difficulty understanding what people say to her, has problems understand what she reads, and cannot find her way home from familiar places," the ruling states.
The court ruled that Esmeralda should be kept in state custody, because her mother continued to show signs of mental illness and refused to take psychotropic medications.
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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.