A Las Vegas man is suing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for medical expenses after he injured his back in 2007 performing baptisms for the dead.
In a civil suit filed in 3rd District Court on Wednesday, Daniel Dastrup claims he suffered a severe herniated disk in his lumbar spine after performing about 200 baptisms on Aug. 25, 2007. The then 25-year-old claims some of the young men and women he completely immersed in water in the name of the dead weighed as much as 250 pounds. [Mr. Dastrup allegeshe] asked to be relieved, an officiator at the LDS temple in Raleigh, N.C., where the baptisms were performed, told Dastrup to continue, the civil suit states. [ . . .]
[Mr. Dastrup] later learned [he had a] herniated disk and had to undergo two spinal surgeries, according to [his law]suit.
Dastrup claims the church breached its duty by 'not warning the plaintiffs that the repetitive motion required for performing baptisms for the dead could cause serious damage to a person’s back and by not allowing Mr. Dastrup to stop and be relieved when he and his replacement requested on multiple occasions that they be switched out.'
Dastrup, who also listed his wife as a plaintiff in the case, claims the injury has affected his relationship with her, and the pain has forced him to quit law school and change his lifestyle.
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This is an interesting lawsuit. Lots of questions arise, for instance: the accident happened in North Carolina, the plaintiff is a Nevadan, suing in Utah. The injury occurred 3 year ago. As a former law student, my head spins with "issue-spotting" follow up questions. Why isn't this a North Carolina workers' compensation claim? What "law" applies? North Carolina? Nevada?(unlikely) or Utah? You get a sense from this fact pattern why law students lose their minds.
Posts
Good issue spotting. But workers' compensation? No employment relationship here . . .
ReplyDeleteAnon@11:02
ReplyDeleteAhhhh, perhaps, but you may be wrong. In fact, in my career I handled numerous cases where for the "purposes" of workers' compensation coverage, just such a scenario supported a finding of coverage. The issues are very involved but the first step would relate to the "definition" of "employee" under the governing laws. This can be very "loose" as there is generally speaking a public policy to "find coverage" for compensation of injuries.
BL
Yeah, you can say that, but then they get hit with a gargantuan wage and hour claim (violation of minimum wage, failure to withhold taxes, etc.)
ReplyDeleteI really doubt that LDS church wants to go into court and swear up and down that these people are employees to beat this suit. That would be frying pan into fire, methinks.
Excellent points, my friend. While it's been some years since I addressed this issue, but my recollection is that the claims of the "emplyer-employee" relationship for workers' comp coverage originates from the claimant-side and the issues of comp coverage is fairly discreet from the wage and hour questions. One is state law and of course the other, federal Depart. of Labor; nonetheless, your point is well-taken. Your observation makes me wonder whether this former "law student" lacked a wage history sufficient to set a metric for the payment of compensation under NC workers' compensation. One other thought occurs to me, perhaps his counsel went the NC workers' comp. route, unsuccessfully, and this lawsuit is a "second effort."
ReplyDeleteBL
He was a volunteer. All Mormon temple workers are volunteers. They go to the temple (different from a chapel)once or twice a year (or more) on their own accord to perform these rites. They are not asked, assigned, commanded, or otherwise obligated to visit the temples to perform baptisms for the dead. The guy was attending school in NC when this happened. He has since returned home to Las Vegas, where he is from. He is representing himself because he just decided one week ago to sue and the statute of limitations ran yesterday. He could not find any attorneys to litigate the case with 4 days to go on the SOL. The Church's headquarters are in Utah, hence the reason it was filed in that particular jurisdiction.
ReplyDeleteMy sources?? Mr. Dastrup is my next door neighbor and fellow church member.
Anon@7:30
ReplyDeleteThank you for the information, very interesting additional facts.
BL
nice information...Thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteI am looking forward to reading your article Baptisms for the Dead, Back Injury Lawsuit and read other posts soon.
ReplyDeleteI'm so impressed to read this blog.Some kind of person who suffers with that come to hear and get this valuable information for their issues.
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When the accidents occur, you have rights under the law to receive compensation for your losses. To claim this compensation, you are encouraged to contact an experienced personal injury lawyer or an Personal injury attorney.Injury lawyers and Injury attorneys are the best people you can have at that time.
ReplyDeleteIf your baptism by proxy of folks long dead will get them into heaven, then why did Jesus have to come down from heaven and die on the cross as our substiute?
ReplyDeleteI have seen many accidents and their compensation cases, many of the cases or injured get their claims because they will not indulge in the legal formalities. So for such cases everyone need to hire a professional lawyer for this. .
ReplyDeleteAccident cause injury and sometimes it must be serious which can cost you much.In such cases if you have insured yourself you can hire a lawyer and seek for compensation of the medical bills.Well for back injury you can take advice from a professional then go as suggested.
ReplyDelete