Sioux Falls woman settles in court over worker's comp benefits relating to husband's death
A Sioux Falls woman seeking worker's compensation benefits relating to her husband's 2020 death has settled in court ahead of a state Supreme Court hearing.
Karen Franken had requested death benefits after her husband Craig died of COVID-19 in April 2020 when he contracted it while working at Smithfield Foods. The South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation dismissed her case in June 2022. A Minnehaha County judge also dismissed the case in November 2022.
Franken had appealed her case all the way up to the South Dakota Supreme Court, and her case was supposed to be heard in the court's oral arguments in Vermillion on Oct. 4. But the state's highest court notified reporters that the Frankens' case had been settled.
More: Sioux Falls woman appeals workers comp lawsuit related to husband's COVID-19 death
The DOL denied the worker compensation claim, citing a 2021 state law that determined employees could not sue for workers compensation when related to COVID-19, unless it was an intentional exposure "with the intent to transmit COVID-19." The law could be applied retroactively to include any time between Jan. 1, 2020 and Dec. 31, 2022.
At the time of Craig Franken's death, Smithfield was the site of one of the largest outbreaks of COVID-19 and paused pork production. More than 500 employees contracted the virus between March and April, and Franken was one of four employees who died from the disease.
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Sioux Falls woman settles COVID worker's compensation case
