Came across a story (unconfirmed) where an adjuster (Workers' Compensation) during the investigation of a death claim discovered the accident was caused in part by the employers negligence.
Seems the employer (a supervisor) removed a safety device from a machine so that production time would not be impacted. This removal did the intended purpose and keeping production high and there were no problems until a newly trained employee used the machine and was severely injured then died.
The adjuster before completing the report discussed the uncovered facts with their supervisor, the claims manager and then the underwriter! Turns out that this insured was a very large account with multiple locations so a decision had to be made about going forward with the facts as presented.
If the death was caused by employer negligence the claim would not be processed as a Workers' Compensation Claim with a death benefit of under $150,000 but handled as a Wrongful Death which in most cases would be a much larger amount, and with the possibility of Punitive Damages (not covered by insurance) being awarded!
The claim was then taken away from this adjuster and completed by an independent adjuster who determined that there was no employer negligence and the claim was paid using the Worker's Compensation Death Benefit!
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