The Supreme Court of Wisconsin, in a split decision, held that an injured employee’s civil action against his employer’s workers’ compensation insurer for damages arising out of its refusal to continue to pay for his antidepressant medication—he... Read More
A Mississippi appellate court affirmed a state trial court's decision granting summary judgment to the state, as employer, on workers' compensation exclusive remedy grounds following the fatal shooting of a state Gaming Commission employee during... Read More
The mother of a 14-year-old part-time farm worker, who suffered fatal injuries in an unwitnessed roll-over accident involving a piece of heavy machinery, may not maintain a civil action against the farm owner, held a New York appellate court. Affirming... Read More
Applying Tennessee law and citing Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law , the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, in a divided decision, agreed that a Tennessee employer could not be liable for an intentional tort in connection with horrific injuries... Read More
In a decision that is likely to have broad and long-reaching ramifications, a divided Supreme Court of Idaho, following a rehearing in a case decided one year earlier, threw out its earlier decision and adopted a rule that allows an injured employee to... Read More
Because a retaliatory discharge action was “integrally related” to the West Virginia Workers’ Compensation Act, it could not be removed to federal court under 28 U.S.C.S. § 1445(c), held the U.S. District Court for the Southern... Read More
Construing the special exception to the Texas version of the exclusive remedy rule—that the survivors of an employee may maintain a wrongful death action against the employer if the employee's death was caused by an intentional act or omission... Read More
Construing New Jersey’s “substantially certain” rule, as applied to intentional tort claims filed against employers and co-employees, a state appellate court held that a former employee of a pharmaceutical company could not move forward... Read More
The Supreme Court of Vermont again refused to adopt the “substantial certainty” rule for intentional tort cases filed by an injured employee against an employer. Citing its earlier decision in Kittell v. Vermont Weatherboard, Inc. , 138 Vt... Read More
A Washington state appellate court held that the state’s exclusive remedy rule did not bar a trooper’s tort action alleging deliberate intentional infliction of “certain injury” sustained when he was “shot” with a Taser... Read More
Construing Illinois law, a federal district court held that plaintiff’s wrongful death action against the decedent’s employer was barred by the exclusive remedy provisions of the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act [see 820 ILCS 305/5... Read More
Ky. Rev. Stat. Ann. 342.165(1), which provides for a 30 percent increase in workers’ compensation benefits where the workplace accident is caused in any degree by the intentional failure of the employer to comply with certain specific safety regulations... Read More
The Supreme Court of Appeals reversed a trial court’s denial of post-trial motions following an adverse jury verdict in a “deliberate intention” action filed pursuant to W. Va. Code § 23-4-2(d)(2)(ii) (2005). The plaintiff, who... Read More
A divided Supreme Court of Utah held that a dispute of a material fact precluded summary judgment in an intentional tort action filed by a plaintiff-employee against the employer where the employee produced evidence that when another worker added sulfuric... Read More
Allegations that an employer removed “explosion doors” from a furnace and that a furnace explosion subsequently injured a furnace operator were insufficient to state a cause of action against the employer; the claim was barred by the exclusive... Read More