The children of a murdered store clerk who were reportedly refused a death-benefit payout because their mother’s employer didn’t pay workers compensation insurance premiums could be better off in the long-run.
Thirty-two year old Zuheily Rosado was working at the Mobile Mart in Palm Coast on the night of February 21st when a gunman walked in and shot her to death.
According to reports, her six children applied for nearly $160,000 in funeral expenses and death benefits that were denied because theMobile Mart's workers’ comp insurance policy had lapsed.
Florida Coastal School of Law professor Rod Sullivan says not having that insurance puts Rosado's employer at huge legal and financial risk.
"In exchange for purchasing workers compensation insurance, the employer gets immunity from suit by the employees. So that, at the end of the day, if this employer actually has money, the employee would actually get more money because they didn't have workers comp. But, they'd have to go through litigation to get that money."
Sullivan says just because a business posts information about how to file a workers-comp claim, that doesn’t mean the insurance policy is paid-up or that it exists at all.
