Illinois: Defendant Allowed to Add Exclusive Remedy Defense After 40 Depositions Have Been Taken

In a divided decision, an Illinois appellate court held that a trial court did not abuse its discretion in allowing the defendant to raise the exclusive remedy defense in spite of the fact that the parties had already taken more than 40 depositions during more than five years of motion practice, discovery, and an earlier appeal in as much as the employer’s response was to plaintiff’s seventh amended complaint. The majority was not persuaded by the plaintiff’s contention that the law-of-the-case doctrine precluded the defendant’s defense. Moreover, the majority indicated the defendant could take advantage of the exclusiveness defense regardless of whether it had specifically paid workers' compensation benefits for the joint venture within which it was a part.

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

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis 

See Hiatt v. Ill. Tool Works, 2018 IL App (2d) 170554, 2018 Ill. App. LEXIS 728 (Sept. 28, 2018)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 100.01.

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