Promise to take care of everything allows late claim to proceed

In New Mexico, if a worker entitled to workers’ compensation fails to file a claim within the limitation period because the conduct of the employer reasonably led her to believe compensation would be paid, then the worker has a reasonable time to file. Summary: A police officer took a day off work to chaperone a group of children from his church on a recreational outing. He drowned while rescuing a 12-year-old boy from a river. Members of the police department assured the officer’s widow that they would "take care of everything for her," including workers’ compensation paperwork. When the widow realized that the employer did not file a workers’ compensation claim, she filed a complaint the same day, 45 days after the one-year statute of limitations expired.