The claim of an injured who brought a Federal Court action pro se for “unwarranted delays” of his NJ workers’ compensation claim was dismissed by a Federal Court. The action was based on a violation of: The Americans with Disabilities Act, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and 42 U.S.C. sec. 1983 for violation of the First, Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments.
The worker suffered an alleged work related accident on January 29, 2008 as an employee of NJ Transit. He alleged that the Judge of Compensation from October 24, 2008 through January 7, 2010, on numerous occasions imposed delays through cancellation or postponement of his hearings.
The Court held that the Younger Abstention Doctrine, that prohibits unwarranted federal interference in an ongoing state judicial proceeding, bars the claims. Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37 (1971). The doctrine is imposed when there is an ongoing state proceeding that involves an important state interest and the state proceedings afford an adequate opportunity to raise any constitutional issues. O’Neill v. City of Philadelphia, 32 F.3d 785 (3rd Cir. Pa. 1944).
The legislative intent of the Workers Compensation Act, originally enacted in 1911, was to provide a summary proceeding through an administration system utilizing the concepts of a no-fault system. The compensation program has been severely challenged over the decades by a growing burden of collateral and complex issues that now need resolution as part of the compensation process. Nationally, the state administered systems have become critically impaired by the growing state economic difficulties that have resulted in the availability of fewer resources to operate a system whose responsibilities and magnitude of demands are constantly increasing.
Townsend v. The Hon. Peter J. Calderone and the Hon. William Lake, in their official capacity as members of Labor and Workforce Development Workers’ Compensation, Civil Action No. 09-3303 (GEB), 2010 WL 19999588 (D.N.J.) Slip Copy, Unpublished Opinion.
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