The “going and coming” rule, which generally holds that a worker’s commute to and from home is outside the scope of the employment if he or she has a fixed locus of employment and fixed hours, could also be utilized in a negligence action filed by a third-party...
An Iowa appellate court affirmed a trial court's decision that granted summary judgment to five co-employees of a plaintiff who had been sued under the state's special "gross negligence" exception to co-employee immunity. The plaintiff had sustained...
Allegations by a former prison detention officer that his former employer was liable in tort for negligent supervision and intentional infliction of emotional distress (IIED) were dismissed by a federal district court sitting in California. The plaintiff contended...
The Minnesota rule that an employer may not be considered “severally liable” along with a defendant, third-party was unaffected by a 2003 amendment to Minn. Stat. § 604.02, subs. 1, held the state’s Supreme Court. Under the clear terms of the statute, the third...
Holding that gross negligence, as described in the Texas statute that allows the family of a deceased worker to recovery exemplary damages if the workers’ death was caused by such gross negligence of the employer [see Tex. Lab. Code Ann. § 408.001(b...
Construing the special exception to the Texas version of the exclusive remedy rule—that the survivors of an employee may maintain a wrongful death action against the employer if the employee's death was caused by an intentional act or omission of the...
Answering a restated certified question from the U.S. District Court (Eastern District of Virginia), the Supreme Court of Virginia, in a deeply divided 4-3 decision, held that an employer owed a duty of care to an employee's family member who alleged exposure...
Construing Oklahoma law, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a federal district court’s dismissal of a negligence action filed against the sole stockholder of a worker’s employer, finding the district court failed to consider the stockholder's “persona...
Where a surviving spouse of a worker killed in a work-related car accident filed a wrongful death action in a state court and joined a separate federal wrongful death action filed by her son, and the parties eventually settled the claim with the federal court approving...
Where an injured worker (or the worker’s dependents) have accepted workers’ compensation benefits and have further sought to recover over against one or more third parties that are responsible for the worker’s injuries, that worker—or his or her dependents—may...
A Nebraska compensation court did not clearly err in determining that an injured employee’s death was the result of suicide, where evidence indicated that the employee had been distraught for several days prior to her death—she had been evicted and advised that...
In a split decision, the Supreme Court of Alaska held that where a plaintiff (a former employee) and his spouse sued the former employer, its workers’ compensation insurer, a private investigator, the employer’s attorney, and a doctor who performed an employer...
Where corporation A supplied licensed truck drivers to corporation B—an affiliated entity—under a three-year agreement under which the drivers worked at B’s facilities, but remained employees of A, who paid the drivers their wages and taxes, and retained total...
A federal court sitting in Nevada dismissed a sales executive’s cause of action against his former employer for negligent hiring, training, supervision, and retention of another employee and dismissed as well a claim that the former employer was liable for intentional...
Where an employee was shot and killed by a co-employee on the special employer’s premises for no apparent reason—the two hardly knew each other and had no difficulties with each at work—the death did not arise out of and in the course of the employment. Accordingly...