In Gash v Black and Veatch, 976 S.W.2d 31 (Mo.App. W.D. 1998), claimant was fatally injured while working at a Kansas construction site. The sole issue of dispute was whether Gash was an employee under Missouri or Kansas workers’ compensation law. The Court affirmed the Commission’s findings, stating that the deceased employee was covered under Missouri workers’ compensation law according to Section 287.110.2 which granted jurisdiction to the Commission to consider all cases involving injuries received outside the state of Missouri under contract of employment made in this state. The Court found the evidence (predominantly circumstantial) supported that the claimant accepted the job offer in Missouri. Therefore, the Court concluded Missouri jurisdiction applied in deciding the claim and awarded benefits.
In Whiteman v Del-Jen Construction, Inc., 37 S.W.3d 823 (Mo.App. W.D. 2001), the Court, in reviewing the whole record, found that the Commission’s determination that the claimant’s employment contract was entered into in Missouri and, therefore, Missouri had jurisdiction over the claimant’s workers’ compensation claim was not against the overwhelming weight of the evidence. In so concluding, the Court found that the Commission had properly accepted telephone records as new evidence to determine whether it had jurisdiction. The Court found that the Commission did not abuse its discretion in finding that, with reasonable diligence, the telephone records could not have been produced prior to the hearing before the Administrative Law Judge.