The Welder Firm: In The News
NPR: Family Of Research Medical Center Nurse Who Died Of COVID-19 Settles Case Against Hospital: Celia Yap-Banago died on April 21 after caring for a patient who was later diagnosed with COVID-19.
Terms of the settlement were confidential, but a lawyer for Celia Yap-Banago’s family said they were pleased with the outcome.
“There was a confidential settlement of the coronavirus workers’ compensation death case, and the case has been resolved to the satisfaction of all the parties,” the lawyer, Brent Welder, said.
NPR: Cerner Agrees To Settle Class Action Lawsuit Over Its Retirement Plan For $4 Million
The settlement covers all beneficiaries of Cerner’s retirement plan as of Jan. 21, 2014, or roughly 26,000 people.
Cerner Corp. has agreed to pay $4.05 million to settle a class action lawsuit over the way it managed its employee retirement program.
The settlement, which requires approval from a federal judge, would resolve two lawsuits filed last year that were later combined.
Both suits alleged that Cerner, the largest private employer based in Kansas City, mismanaged its 401(k) plan by choosing costly investment options and defaulting to its own stock to match employee contributions.
As part of the settlement, Cerner has agreed to change the way it administers the plan.
Cerner, a health information technology company, has more than 28,000 employees worldwide. More than 13,000 work in the Kansas City area.
Kristie Welder, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said she was unable to comment on the settlement.
Cerner’s retirement plan is among the largest in the United States as measured by assets and participants, according to court documents.
The settlement covers all beneficiaries of Cerner’s retirement plan as of Jan. 21, 2014, or roughly 26,000 people.
Des Moines Register: Family of Marshalltown meatpacking worker who died of COVID-19 sues JBS
The family of a JBS pork processing plant employee who died of COVID-19 says in a lawsuit that the company was negligent in its initial response to the disease, including holding lunches for employees who continued to have good work attendance where they sat side by side, without masks or other apparent safety precautions.
The lawsuit says the lunches were held on March 25, 2020, eight days after Gov. Kim Reynolds had ordered many businesses to close amid the start of the coronavirus outbreak and limited public gatherings. JBS posted on its Marshalltown plant Facebook page that managers wanted to honor workers for "feeding the world!!"
"You are a super hero!" the post continued. "... We will serve a free super meal for you."
Brent Welder, an attorney for the family of Jose Andrade-Garcia, a 21-year JBS employee who contracted COVID and died in May 2020, said photos from the lunches, posted on the plant's Facebook page, show employees sharing tables without any barriers or masks.
"Hundreds of defendants’ workers were crammed inside the Marshalltown plant cafeteria — despite the Iowa governor’s order that public gathering be limited to no more than 10 people," says the suit, filed against JBS in Marshall County District Court. "Defendant failed to implement even basic safety precautions during this lunch, such as social distancing and limiting quantities of people, and provided no protective equipment such as masks or barriers. Shoulder to shoulder and entirely unprotected from the deadly pandemic, Defendant’s workers ate a free meal as 'thanks' for their service during the pandemic."
Meatpacking plants, where thousands of animal carcasses rapidly move down a processing line as workers labor elbow to elbow, were the sites of some of the biggest COVID-19 outbreaks in the country in 2020.
KC STAR: KC nurse dies of COVID. Now husband is fighting for a vaccine he says he was promised.
Tracy Kolterman was known for her baking.
Between pulling loaves of bread from the oven, Kolterman worked as a nurse in a long-term care facility in Kansas City and was devoted to taking of care of people in need. She died Jan. 19 of complications from COVID-19.
Kolterman, 60, is remembered “as a kind, caring and devoted nurse,” according to her obituary. She was born in Bath, New York, on Aug. 30, 1960, but grew up in Clay Center, Kansas.
She married her husband, Greg Kolterman, in 2002. Now, he’s fighting to get the death benefits and a COVID-19 vaccine he said was promised to him after her death.
Greg Kolterman filed a death claim on Tuesday with the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations Division of Workers’ Compensation, stating that Tracy Kolterman contracted COVID-19 doing her job as a long-term charge nurse at McCrite Plaza at Briarcliff.
Attorneys for Greg Kolterman said he has not received death benefits from the insurance company and that a promised vaccine was stripped away after he sought legal assistance.
In a news release, attorney Brent Welder said “the workers’ insurance company has refused to give her widower the benefits he is legally entitled to receive.”
Welder, who represents Greg Kolterman along with Kristie Welder through Welder Firm LLC, said the nursing home at which Tracy Kolterman worked promised Greg Kolterman a vaccine. But when the company learned he had hired an attorney, Welder said, the long-term care facility director barred him from receiving the vaccine at McCrite Plaza, saying he should find somewhere else and “get in line.”
That was two days after he buried his wife.
The death claim that Greg Kolterman filed states his wife’s body was “ravaged by the virus — ultimately leading to her death.”
She went to the hospital on Dec. 19. Five weeks later, she died.
In addition to her husband, she leaves behind three children and 16 grandchildren.
Welder said the decision not to give Greg Kolterman a vaccine was “absolutely devastating, in Mr. Kolterman’s most vulnerable moments to be retaliated against just merely for doing exactly what his wife would have wanted him to do.”
The Welder Firm, in Kansas City, is a catastrophic injury and wrongful death law firm.
He hopes, he said, that the nursing home will pay the benefits and provide Greg Kolterman with a vaccine.
“Frankly I think not only was it cruel and wrong to take that away from him in the first place but I do think that it is also unlawful retaliation,” Welder said.
Fitness studio files nationwide class action against COVID-denying insurance corporation
Jay and Carol Jasunas achieved one of their lifelong dreams when they became small business owners. They own a boutique fitness franchise called Row House, located in Denver Colorado.
"It was an amazing experience," Jay said. "To take this leap with my wife, working together, building something we believe in. My family felt really blessed."
Then, the coronavirus pandemic hit. Like many other small businesses around the country, the Jasunas' fitness studio had to close for several months.
"We were devastated," Carol said. We lost so much of our family's nest egg and income. We want to protect our clients and staff, and our whole community, but this last year has been incredibly challenging and we need financial assistance to ensure we can continue to be there for our community."
The family filed a claim with their business interruption insurance carrier, Arch Insurance Company, located in Kansas City, Missouri. The insurance policy is designed to reimburse businesses for financial losses due to unexpected shutdowns, including those related to pandemics. Despite this, Arch Insurance denied the claim without an investigation.
To say the couple was upset is an understatement.
"After we spent thousands of dollars on an insurance policy, a denial felt like a kick in the teeth. That's why we bought insurance, to protect our small business. But Arch told us to take a hike," Jay said.
The Jasunas family’s fitness studio is a local franchise of Row House Franchise, LLC, whose parent company is Xponential Fitness LLC. Xponential Fitness owns nine major fitness brands (Club Pilates, CycleBar, StretchLab, Row House, Pure Barre, YogaSix, AKT, STRIDE, and Rumble), with thousands of studios worldwide. Seeing small business owners nationwide victimized by Arch Insurance, the company immediately sprang into action. Xponential Fitness has now filed a federal class action lawsuit on behalf of its thousands of small fitness studios nationwide that were also denied coverage by Arch Insurance. The lawsuit is the first of its kind, in which a parent company franchisor is driving such an effort on behalf of its franchisees for business interruption.
The Welder Firm, located in Kansas City, Missouri, is representing the class, along with Howard & Howard Attorneys and Sherman & Howard, each firm led respectively by Michael Fawaz and Chris Mosley, while Xponential’s efforts are being managed by Michael Abramson.
Led by husband-and-wife team Brent and Kristie Welder, The Welder Firm has already set a national precedent requiring insurance companies to cover COVID-19 injuries and deaths in workers. The Welder Firm represented the families of Celia Yap-Banago and Tracy Kolterman, two nurses who lost their lives to coronavirus, and has filed catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases on behalf of other families as well.
Arch Insurance took millions of premium dollars from small businesses nationwide, promising to protect them in this kind of emergency. Right when hardworking families needed help the most, Arch Insurance violated its own policies to deny these claims. That decision, purely based on its own corporate greed, is illegal and immoral. We won’t stand for it,” said attorney Kristie Welder.
"The Jasunas family, along with all of our franchise partners, are incredibly dedicated to their communities and studios, and we support their tireless efforts to get through this pandemic. They deserve better from Arch Insurance and we stand with them," said Sarah Lund, President of Xponential Fitness.
NEWSWEEK: FAMILY OF MISSOURI NURSE WHO DIED OF CORONAVIRUS FILE CLAIM FOR BENEFITS, SAY SHE WASN’T GIVEN ADEQUATE PROTECTIVE GEAR
The family of a nurse who died of coronavirus after caring for an infected patient without adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) have filed a claim for death benefits, their attorneys said.
Attorneys Brent and Kristie Welder, of The Welder Firm in Kansas City, said she contracted the virus after caring for the patient without the PPE that she and other healthcare workers had been requesting for days.
The Welders argue that since Yap-Banago's death was caused by her job, workers' compensation laws mandate that benefits are provided to her family.
"It's a terrifying time for healthcare workers," Kristie Welder said in a statement to Newsweek. "They are heroes, yet their families could be emotionally and financially ruined. I certainly hope that Celia's former employer, Research Medical Center, will do the right thing and honor the family by agreeing to a swift and just resolution of this case so the family can move on with their grieving process."
Brent Welder added: "Celia's death is devastating. Celia is a hero who went in to work every day to serve the public good. In response, she was refused life-saving PPE by her employer and contracted a fatal case of coronavirus."
He added: "Healthcare workers like her are sacrificing their lives, and Celia's family wants to ensure that our nation honors its responsibility to them and their families."
Associated Press: Missouri family files claim in nurse’s death from virus
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Attorneys for the family of a Missouri nurse who died from COVID-19 filed a claim for death benefits Monday under the state’s workers’ compensation laws.
Attorneys Brent and Kristie Welder said in a news release that Yap-Banago and another nurse cared for a patient with coronavirus on March 22-23. Both nurses asked their supervisors for PPE for everyone who came in contact with the patient but the equipment was not provided, the attorneys said.
HCA Midwest, which operates Research Medical, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment, but the company has denied that its nurses did not have adequate PPE.
Xponential Fitness Latest Club Company Suing For Business Interruption Coverage
Xponential Fitness LLC, Irvine, California, is suing Arch Insurance Co. over the insurance company’s denial of business interruption insurance related to the temporary closure of their studios due to COVID-19 restrictions, the company announced last week.
The case is Xponential Fitness LLC et al., v. Arch Insurance Co., Case No. 4:21-cv-00268-BCW (W.D.Mo.), currently pending in the Western District of Missouri before Judge Brian Wimes.
Fitness Holdings Co., which owns LA Fitness, announced in April that it also has filed lawsuits against insurance companies for denying business interruption (BI) insurance claims stemming from the COVID-19 shutdowns of clubs. Life Time and Anytime Fitness filed lawsuits against their insurance companies in 2020 for denying BI insurance claims. Rather than franchisees filing their own lawsuits, Xponential used its resources to file the suit as a federal class action on behalf of its thousands of franchisees that span eight of its nine brands: Club Pilates, CycleBar, StretchLab, Pure Barre, Row House, YogaSix, AKT and STRIDE. Rumble, which Xponential recently purchased, is not included in the lawsuit.
Jay and Carol Jasunas are two Xponential franchisees. They own a Row House franchise in Denver. Like small businesses nationwide, the Jasunas’ fitness studio was required to shut down for several months with the ongoing specter of future shutdowns.
“We were devastated,” Carol Jasunas said in the media release. “We lost so much of our family’s nest egg and income. We want to protect our clients and staff, and our whole community, but this last year has been incredibly challenging and we need financial assistance to ensure we can continue to be there for our community.”
The Jasunas family filed a claim with their business interruption insurance carrier, Arch Insurance Company based in Kansas City, Missouri. The insurance policy is supposed to reimburse businesses for financial losses due to unexpected shutdowns, including those related to pandemics, according to the lawsuit.
Arch Insurance denied the claim.
“After we spent thousands of dollars on an insurance policy, a denial (let alone one without investigation) felt like a kick in the teeth,” Jay Jasunas said. “That’s why we bought insurance, to protect our small business. But Arch told us to take a hike.”
The Welder Firm, located in Kansas City, Missouri, is representing the class, along with Howard & Howard Attorneys and Sherman & Howard, each firm led respectively by Michael Fawaz and Chris Mosley, while Xponential’s efforts are being managed by Michael Abramson.
“Arch Insurance took millions of premium dollars from small businesses nationwide, promising to protect them in this kind of emergency,” said attorney Kristie Welder. “Right when hardworking families needed help the most, Arch Insurance violated its own policies to deny these claims. That decision, purely based on its own corporate greed, is illegal and immoral. We won’t stand for it.”
USA TODAY: Attorneys for family of nurse who died from COVID-19 file claim for death benefits
Kansas City: Attorneys for the family of a nurse who died from COVID-19 filed a claim for death benefits Monday under the state’s workers’ compensation laws. Attorneys Brent and Kristie Welder said in a news release that Yap-Banago and another nurse cared for a patient with coronavirus March 22-23. Both nurses asked their supervisors for PPE for everyone who came in contact with the patient, but the equipment was not provided, the attorneys said.