Utah: IRS Employee May Not Sue Co-Employee for Parking Lot Injuries

An IRS employee, who sustained injuries in an auto-pedestrian accident that occurred in an employee-designated parking lot, may not maintain another IRS employee; workers’ compensation was her exclusive remedy, held a Utah appellate court. Quoting Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the court observed that practically all jurisdictions now consider adjacent parking lots as part of the employer’s premises; the rule is not confined to those lots owned and maintained by the employer. Here the IRS did not actually maintain the parking lot; there was, however, a security fence around it and the area was designated for parking by IRS employees. The trial court did not err when it granted the co-employee summary judgment.

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 Brown v. Williams, 2017 UT 29, 2017 Utah App. LEXIS 29 (Feb. 16, 2017)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 13.04.

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