The history of so-called second injury funds demonstrates how unintended consequences can thwart even the best intentions of workers' compensation policymakers. When these funds were narrowly defined, the liabilities remained manageable. Through the years, SIFs have grown like some jerry-built Victorian mansion, adding rooms and extensions with little attention to the underlying architecture of the workers' comp system or the true costs of growth. The recent closure of the New York fund offers the most telling example yet of how second injury funds have become too costly to operate, both politically and financially.