5 min read
On May 19, 2021, Mohamud Ahmed Mohamud was driving a semi-truck for work when he struck a bridge pillar and was killed. He left behind Samira Farah, the woman he had married two months earlier, and an unborn daughter.
What came next was almost four years of fighting just to receive the benefits the law was supposed to provide.
We represented Samira throughout the case. In March 2026, I argued on her behalf before a three-judge panel at the Minnesota Workers' Compensation Court of Appeals (WCCA).
Three questions were before the court: whether Samira was entitled to benefits as a surviving spouse, if the employers should be sanctioned for ignoring court orders, and whether the penalties assessed against them were high enough.
A Marriage, a Death, and a Claim Denied
Samira and Mohamud met in 2020. They got engaged, moved in together, and were married in a traditional Somali ceremony in March 2021. Five hundred people attended. Their Imam performed the ceremony and gave them a marriage certificate.
Mohmaud's tragic accident happened two months later.
Under Minnesota law, when a worker is killed on the job, their spouse and children are entitled to financial benefits. Mohamud had been driving for Bashka Express LLC, which was a subcontractor of Capital Express Inc. Both companies knew on the night of the accident that Mohamud was their driver. Capital had someone at the scene within hours.
But neither company paid a dime. Bashka claimed Mohamud wasn't an employee but rather an independent contractor and therefore not their responsibility. Capital denied any responsibility at all.
Samira, now a single mother, received nothing.
A Shaky Defense
I argued that Bashka's position didn’t have the evidence to support it.
Mohamud had worked for Bashka since 2018. He had a written employment contract. Bashka paid for his fuel. He was listed on Bashka's commercial insurance policy. Under federal trucking regulations, a driver like Mohamud is classified as an employee—full stop.
The owner of Bashka, Ali Ibrahim, has had his commercial driver's license since 2004. He knew those rules.
For years, Ibrahim claimed a different contract existed, one that would make Mohamud an independent contractor. He said he was looking for it. At his deposition in 2022, he testified under oath that Bashka never paid for Mohamud's fuel. Text messages on his own phone proved that was false. He didn't hand those messages over to his attorney until a mediation in March 2024, more than two years into the case.
At the oral argument, I told the judges, “They couldn't have proven that defense even if they tried. They never had one to begin with.”
On May 21, 2025, four years after Mohamud's death, Bashka admitted he was their employee. Capital admitted its responsibility the night before the formal hearing.
Was Samira His Spouse?
Even after the employment question was settled, the compensation judge denied Samira's personal claim for benefits. His reason: her marriage had never been registered with the state, so she wasn't a legal spouse.
In Minnesota, a person can still be recognized as a spouse, what the law calls a "putative spouse," if they had a good-faith belief they were married.
The evidence said Samira did. They had a wedding ceremony attended by 500 people. Their Imam married them and issued a certificate. They shared a bank account and a home. Samira was pregnant with their daughter. Even Mohamud's employer handed Mohamud's final paycheck to Samirah and told her it was because she was Mohamud's wife.
Samira believed the Imam's certificate made the marriage official. She thought sending it to the state was just recordkeeping, something she could do whenever. She didn't learn it was legally required until almost a year after Mohamud died.
I argued that the compensation judge never properly applied the law, he pointed to a credibility issue without working through what the putative spouse statute requires.
At oral argument, the three judges pressed hard on that question, but I kept the same position: The law asks what Samira believed on the day her husband died. The record showed she believed she was his wife.
Four Years Without a Dollar
Minnesota law allows for penalties when an employer or insurance company delays benefits without a good reason. The compensation judge found that both Bashka and Capital had done that and fined them 10% and 5% respectively.
But those numbers weren't enough.
Bashka knew from the start that Mohamud was their employee. The proof was on Ibrahim's own phone. The federal regulations were ones he had known about for decades. I argued that the delay wasn't a mistake—it was a choice. The maximum penalty allowed is 30%, and I argued that's what the facts required.
Capital's conduct was just as hard to defend. The company had someone at the crash scene within hours. It had a legal responsibility as the general contractor when its subcontractor was uninsured. Throughout the litigation, it refused to produce documents, kept its claims adjuster off the witness stand, and ignored a court order to disclose evidence supporting its defense. Its CEO admitted under oath that he had no knowledge of the relevant parts of his own business and hadn't tried to find out.
I told the panel that not a single dollar was paid to Samira or her daughter before the formal hearing. When that's the reality, it's hard to justify anything less than the maximum penalty.
What This Case Is Really About
This case is about what workers' compensation is supposed to do. It exists so that when someone is hurt or killed at work, their family isn't left with nothing.
Mohamud was working. He died doing his job. His daughter, who hadn't even been born yet when he died, deserves benefits. So does Samira.
This is a case about a child and her mother. They are exactly who the workers' compensation system was built to protect. In my view, four years of delay without a real defense is the kind of conduct the law exists to prevent.
If your workers' compensation claim has been denied or delayed, contact Aaron Ferguson Law to talk through your options.
