Workers' comp benefits at issue

Entrant's claim to disability pay sparks questions

By Paul Davenport

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PHOENIX — The state's leading workers' compensation insurer says it will ask the Arizona Supreme Court to settle whether illegal immigrants are eligible for workers' compensation benefits.

The State Compensation Fund said it will ask the high court to review a lower court judge's assertion that an injured worker's benefits claim should have been denied because he is an illegal immigrant, not due to his medical circumstances.

The "special concurrence" that Judge Daniel Barker attached to a majority ruling by two other judges on a Court of Appeals panel is not legally binding on lower courts.

However, the Compensation Fund is worried that Barker's position could lead to confusion over whether illegal immigrants are eligible for workers' compensation benefits and lead to employee lawsuits against employers over coverage, said Christa Severns, a spokeswoman for the quasi-public agency.

The fund will ask the Supreme Court to erase Barker's concurrence or issue its own ruling on the issue, she said Monday. "We're asking for some clarification."