At least 13 workers infected at Brooklyn terminal with no masks in March 2020
A New York appeals court ruled Tuesday that a freight company must pay death benefits after a truck driver contracted COVID-19 at work in 2020.
The Appellate Division decision, issued February 11, sends a clear message to employers: workplace outbreaks can make you liable for worker deaths, even years after the pandemic's peak.
The case involves ABF Freight System and Rosemarie Hogan, whose husband died in April 2020 after contracting COVID-19 at the company's Brooklyn terminal. The court's ruling affirms that his death qualifies as a work-related accident under workers' compensation law.
The timeline reveals how quickly the virus spread through the workplace. The truck driver started showing symptoms on March 27, 2020, with fever and flu-like complaints. He tested positive the next day, was briefly hospitalized, then sent home. Days later, he collapsed and was readmitted with severe complications. On April 3, 2020, he died from cardiac arrest caused by respiratory failure linked to COVID-19.
What made this case compelling for the Workers' Compensation Board was the workplace environment. Testimony showed that in March 2020, workers at the terminal regularly interacted closely without any protective equipment. No one wore masks. The terminal eventually shut down from April 2 through April 10, 2020, for sanitization after at least 12 coworkers contracted the virus around the same time the driver fell ill.
The company fought the claim, arguing the death was not work-related. But the evidence painted a different picture. The driver's widow testified that during March 2020, she and her children did not leave home for work. Her husband was the only family member leaving the house and interacting with others. When she did go out, she wore a mask, gloves, eyeglasses and a face shield.
Medical providers could not say definitively where the driver caught the virus. That is where workplace prevalence became critical. The court found that testimony about conditions at the terminal, combined with the outbreak among coworkers, was enough to establish that he contracted COVID-19 at work.
The decision reinforces a legal framework that has emerged from several recent New York cases. Workers can prove their illness arose from employment by showing either a specific exposure to the virus or widespread presence of COVID-19 in their workplace creating elevated risk. Examples include workers with significant public contact in high-infection communities or employees in workplaces experiencing outbreaks.
Importantly, workers do not need to identify the exact date or moment they were exposed. The court recognized that pinpointing exposure is often impossible with a virus that spreads invisibly.
The company also challenged the process, claiming the board violated its rights by referencing testimony from another COVID-19 death case involving the same employer. The court dismissed this argument, noting the board relied only on evidence in the current case record.
For HR professionals, this ruling carries practical weight. It shows that workplace conditions matter enormously in these claims. Multiple infections among coworkers during the same period, combined with lack of protective measures, can support findings that illness was work-related. The outbreak itself becomes evidence.
The decision also highlights the enduring consequences of pandemic workplace safety choices. Even as COVID-19 fades from daily headlines, cases from 2020 continue working through the courts, establishing precedents that define employer liability. Companies that failed to implement protective protocols during outbreaks face ongoing legal exposure.
