N.Y. High Court Rejects Apportionment for Work and Non-Work Causes of Injury Leading to Death

ALBANY, N.Y. — The New York Court of Appeals has ruled that the state’s Workers’ Compensation Law does not require that death benefits be apportioned between work-related and non-work-related causes of injury.

That decision came Oct. 15 in an asbestos-exposure case in which employer Consolidated Edison (NYSE:ED) challenged the death benefit award on the basis of a second contributing factor, i.e., thyroid cancer.

In October 2007, Gaudenzia Hroncich applied to Con Ed for death benefits after her husband, Antonio, died of respiratory failure, precipitated by lung cancer.

Antonio Hroncich was a plumber’s helper and mechanic for Con Ed, from 1958 …