Ohio: Officer May Maintain Intentional Tort Action Against Fellow SWAT Team Member for “Assault” During Training Exercise

In a case with somewhat bizarre facts, an Ohio appellate court ruled a state trial court appropriately found that there was a genuine issue for trial regarding whether the defendant, who served along with plaintiff on a county SWAT team, knew that it was substantially certain that he would injure plaintiff when, during a SWAT team training exercise, defendant struck plaintiff in the head with a submachine gun. The two had been among a group of team members participating in a Taser training exercise. Evidence suggested that prior to exercise, their instructor indicated there were not to be any blows between participants. At the time of his injury, plaintiff had taken the role as a “bad guy,” and wore a special body suit to prevent the Taser barbs from reaching his skin. His role was to be uncooperative when the assault team entered the room. As the “good guys” entered the room, plaintiff performed his role, at which point the Taser operator was to discharge the Taser. Instead, defendant, who was not holding the Taser, struck the plaintiff—who was not wearing a safety helmet—in the side of the head a submachine gun. Defendant contended he thought plaintiff wore protective headgear. Other team members indicated they knew the Taser suit offered no protection from physical blows. The appellate court said the trial court appropriately refused to grant summary judgment to defendant. Under Ohio’s substantially certain rule, there was an issue of fact as to whether defendant’s actions were sufficiently intentional to support a tort award.

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 Hunt v. Alderman, 2017-Ohio-7591, 2017 Ohio App. LEXIS 3902 (Sept. 13, 2017)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 103.04.

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