North Dakota: Res Judicata Bars Worker and Parents of Deceased Worker from Tort Recovery Against Purported Employer

Where the parents of a worker killed in an industrial accident and another worker who sustained injuries in the accident submitted applications for workers’ compensation benefits and accepted them, the parties could not later maintain a civil action against the “employer” on the basis that the injured worker and the deceased worker were actually independent contractors, held the Supreme Court of North Dakota. The doctrine of res judicata prohibited a second “litigation” of the issue. Nor could the parties prevail based on allegations that the “employer” had understated its payroll and now sought to hide behind the exclusive remedy defense.

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 Advance.

See Plains Trucking v. Hagar, 2019 ND 226, 2019 N.D. LEXIS 227 (Aug. 22, 2019)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 127.07.

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

For a more detailed discussion of the case, see