May 4, 2004

COURT RULES HIV A JOB HAZARD IN PRISONS

Natalie Missakian , New Haven Register Staff

HARTFORD - The state Supreme Court ruled Monday that HIV is an occupational hazard for some state prison guards, making them eligible to file worker's compensation claims if they contract the disease on the job.

The decision stems from a decade-old case brought by the unidentified family of a prison guard who died of AIDS in 1993.

While the ruling is limited to guards in the emergency response unit, it opens the door for other public safety workers who are at higher risk of exposure to the virus, said Joel T. Faxon, attorney for the plaintiffs.

"This broadens the ability of injured people to receive compensation for potentially deadly diseases," Faxon said. "I think that it bodes well for other people in public safety professions."

In a 5-2 ruling, Justice Flemming T. Norcott said the risk of contracting the disease was unique to the guard's job, because he was responsible for "breaking up altercations and riots in an inmate population with an HIV infection level of 1 in 20, more than 70 times greater than the general population."

He noted that the guard experienced numerous incidents in which he could have come into contact with blood and other bodily secretions of inmates
through splash incidents.

But in a dissenting opinion, Justices Christine S. Vertefeuille and Peter T. Zarella noted that the HIV infection rate for splash incidents involving HIV-infected blood is extremely low.

Only one other department employee in Connecticut has ever contracted HIV in the workplace, and that was the result of a needle stick, the dissenting opinion said.

"The risk of HIV exposure from a splash incident is so minimal, fortunately, that it is not an increased hazard of employment," Vertefeuille wrote.

The guard's widow still must file with the state Workers' Compensation Commission and prove that her husband contracted the virus on the job. Faxon said the woman, who is raising two disabled children, is seeking benefits totaling $1 million.

State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said the decision would affect about 100 guards.

"Its impact will be very limited, because it affects only corrections employees who are members of emergency response teams," Blumenthal said. "The decision simply gives them an extra two years to file a claim, which seems sensible and fair."

Under the rules for state workers' compensation, employees hurt on the job have a year from the date of injury to file a claim.

But Faxon noted that in the case of HIV exposure, workers may not know they are infected until developing the disease years later.

Patients who contract diseases that are considered occupational hazards have a three-year window to file a claim.

The plaintiff's family tried to file a claim after his death in 1993 but was told they were too late, because it was more than a year after he left the job.

© New Haven Register 2004