Disgarding of personal belongings while on TTD W/C

Thedra Allen

New Member
Jurisdiction
California
Hello,
I need to know can an employer discard my personal belongings while Im out on Workers Comp, TTD? I was injured on the job and my doctor took me off. Since then, I have been compromised and released. I emailed my employer requesting my belongings and told them where to send them. They never did and asked what items was I referring to. I told them but they never got back to me. I contacted my attorney and he told me to email him with a list of my belongings. Eventually told me they stated that they contacted me by email and verbally and left a message stating to pick up my things. They said i never responded. They were in storage for a long time so they discarded them. The employer NEVER contacted me to pick up anything, by email or phone. And if this was the case, why didn't they tell me that when I emailed them to send my belongs to my address? I need to know can they do this? I want proof that they contacted me. What recourse do I have against them? There were special things in my belongs such as my son's first baby picture from the hospital that I cannot get back, amongst some other things!! My attorney is acting very nonchalant about everything now that my case is over and Im hurt and feel robbed!!
 
I did not get on this site to be made to feel worse then I already do!! I asked the question to get legal advice!!.

Ok, let me spell it out for you. First, you took irreplaceable personal items to work. There's no reason for that. Second, those items have (apparently) little to no actual value, since sentimental value is worth $0. Since the items have been disposed of, the only thing you can hope to recover using the legal system is the actual amount you're out, which is $0.
 
Hello,
I need to know can an employer discard my personal belongings while Im out on Workers Comp, TTD? I was injured on the job and my doctor took me off. Since then, I have been compromised and released. I emailed my employer requesting my belongings and told them where to send them. They never did and asked what items was I referring to. I told them but they never got back to me. I contacted my attorney and he told me to email him with a list of my belongings. Eventually told me they stated that they contacted me by email and verbally and left a message stating to pick up my things. They said i never responded. They were in storage for a long time so they discarded them. The employer NEVER contacted me to pick up anything, by email or phone. And if this was the case, why didn't they tell me that when I emailed them to send my belongs to my address? I need to know can they do this? I want proof that they contacted me. What recourse do I have against them? There were special things in my belongs such as my son's first baby picture from the hospital that I cannot get back, amongst some other things!! My attorney is acting very nonchalant about everything now that my case is over and Im hurt and feel robbed!!

You can sue them in small claims court, however, please be aware that while your son's baby picture is precious to you, it has no monetary value. And the court is going to look at actual monetary damages.

Same with your other personal items - you'll need to prove their monetary value at the time they were discarded (not replacement value).

And the above is all assuming that they don't have proof that they notified you.
 
Just to add, it was your responsibility to go get your items, not their responsibility to send things to you. It sounds as if you were gone for a long time, and they had no reason to expect you had anything valuable just sitting there.

It's unfortunate you have lost these items. There is no way for you to get them back if they disposed of them. I agree the actual value is too low to reasonably consider legal action.
 
I did not get on this site to be made to feel worse then I already do!! I asked the question to get legal advice!!.

Do you want the truth, or do you want emotional support?

Here's your biggest issue, PROVING you ever possessed the items and said items were deposited at your workplace.
That is nearly impossible to establish.

Your second biggest issue is the value of the items.
A photo of you on Santa Claus' knee at age 4 might be priceless to you, but to the planet its worthless.

The third issue is establishing the legal duty of your employer to protect property unknown to her/him, that you allege he/she discarded.
The law is about PROOF, not mere ASSERTION.
 
Back
Top