California is one of the few states that recognize cumulative trauma claims, injuries suffered after a person does the same activity over and over again. Since professional sports teams play all over the country and there’s a good chance they have played in California, a lot of athletes who have this kind of injury file claims in California. In 2013 the state somewhat limited those who would be allowed to file these claims to athletes who spent more than one fifth of their career playing in California or those who played for a California based team. Those limitations are applied to claims filed after September 15, 2013.

One former NBA star who played for the Knicks (a New York team) filed a claim in California because of his cumulative trauma injury. Durand Macklin played in the league between 1981 and 1984. He played for the Atlanta Hawks then spent a year in the NBA with the Knicks then he moved to the minor league team, the Albany Patroons, finally ending up with the LA Clippers through the end of 1984. He claims he suffered cumulative trauma starting in 1981 that lasted throughout the rest of his career, and should be eligible for benefits since he had played in California with the Knicks and played games there with the Hawks and Clippers.

He filed his claim in August of 2011 with the Knicks after he visited a physician in June 2011 who said his injuries were directly related to his professional basketball playing days. According to Macklin, the Knicks never told him about his rights to potential comp benefits. A workers’ compensation judge determined that his claim was not time-barred since he had only recently learned of his injuries and all three teams (Hawks, Clippers, and Knicks) had some jurisdiction because they all had a connection with him and basketball in California.

The Knicks appealed and the workers’ compensation appeals board upheld the original ruling and said that his employment with the Clippers and the games he played with other teams in California established his injury in terms of being eligible for benefits in California. However the liability would be spread over all the teams he played for and the Knicks asked for writ of review.

The California appeals court ruled that the Knicks were liable for contributing to his injury and they were partially responsible for his workers’ compensation in California even though they were out-of-state. Macklin had ultimately played for a California based team, which was enough to take subject matter jurisdiction over the whole case and apply it to teams who were involved who were not based in the state.

The California law states that an employer may be subject to liability for this type of injury if they employed the worker during the year before the date of injury, or if they employed the worker in the last year of them working the kind of job that caused their injury.