Illinois: Acceptance of Comp Benefits Is Election Barring Intentional Tort Case Against Employer

Where a paramedic trainee, who sustained injuries while participating in a training program, filed suit against his employer and others alleging an intentional tort, but later sought and received workers’ compensation benefits for the injury, his acceptance of benefits operated as an election and barred any recovery in the intentional tort action, held an Illinois appellate court. He argued that the defendants intentionally injured him by forcing him to engage in rigorous physical exercise with minimal water breaks that resulted in dehydration and acute kidney failure. Citing Collier v. Wagner Castings Co., 81 Ill. 2d 229, 408 N.E.2d 198, 41 Ill. Dec. 776 (1980), the court said collecting workers’ compensation benefits for an injury was inconsistent with a common law suit alleging the injury was the result of an employer’s (or a co-employee’s) intentional conduct.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Locasto v. City of Chicago, 2016 IL App (1st) 151369 (Mar. 8, 2016)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 102.03.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law.

For more information about LexisNexis products and solutions connect with us through our corporate site