Circumstances in which Iowa has Jurisdiction over a Workers’ Compensation Claim

The Iowa Workers’ Compensation Act (Iowa Code §§85.1 through 85.72) requires most Iowa employers to provide benefits to eligible employees who sustain injuries arising out of and in the course of their employment. A claim falls within the Iowa Workers’ Compensation Commission’s jurisdiction if the injury occurs in the state of Iowa. In certain circumstances, a claim also falls within the Iowa Workers’ Compensation Commission’s jurisdiction if the injury occurs outside the state of Iowa. According to Iowa Code §85.71, if an employee, while working outside the state, suffers an injury on account of which the employee would have been entitled to workers’ compensation benefits had the injury occurred within the state, the employee is entitled to workers’ compensation benefits if, at the time of the injury, any of the following is applicable:

1. The employer has a place of business in Iowa and the employee regularly works at or from that place of business, or if the employee’s employer has a place of business in Iowa and the employee is domiciled in Iowa.

2. The employee is working under a contract of hire made in Iowa and the employee regularly works in Iowa.

3. The employee is working under a contract of hire made in Iowa and sustains an injury for which no remedy is available under the workers’ compensation laws of another state.

4. The employee is working under a contract of hire made in Iowa for employment outside the U.S.

5. The employer has a place of business in Iowa and the employee is working under a contract of hire which provides that the employee’s workers’ compensation claims are to be governed by Iowa law.

Each of these situations requires an employee-employer relationship or a contract of hire between claimant and employer. The term “regularly works” is not defined by statute; however, the Iowa Workers’ Compensation Commissioner has defined the term as “conforming to a fixed procedure, usual or customary.” The Commissioner reasoned that had the legislature intended for an objective standard, it would have defined the term and not used the subjective word “regularly.” Thus, the Commissioner decided the term does not refer to quantity and rather means “conforming to a mixed procedure, usual or customary.”

For more information on what types of workers’ compensation claims fall within the jurisdiction of the Iowa Workers’ Compensation Commission, please contact Sara Hughes at shughes@baylorevnen.com or any of the Baylor Evnen Iowa Workers’ Compensation attorneys at (402) 475-1075.