Despite the apparent harshness of the rule, the Supreme Court of Alaska affirmed a trial court’s decision granting a general contractor and building owner summary judgment in a wrongful death action filed by the estate of an apprentice electrician who suffered...
The Supreme Court of Utah noted that although the intentional tort exception to workers’ compensation exclusivity clearly applied to claims governed by the state’s Workers’ Compensation Act (WCA), the issue had never been decided for claims governed...
A Texas appellate court held the so-called “going and coming” rule in the workers’ compensation sphere could be utilized to bar recovery against an employer in a civil action that alleged the employer’s employee was negligent in the operation...
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...
Utilizing the co-employee “intentional injury” exception to Alabama’s exclusive remedy rule [see Ala. Code § 25-5-11(b)], the Supreme Court of Alabama affirmed a trial court’s decision to grant summary judgment in favor of two co-employee...
Stressing that allowing a workers’ compensation insurer to intervene in a third-party civil action filed by an injured worker against the purported tortfeasor would not cause delay and would not necessarily cause confusion among potential jurors should the case...
In a deeply divided decision, the Supreme Court of Colorado reversed, in pertinent part, a decision by a divided division of the state’s Court of Appeals and held that a workers’ compensation carrier’s settlement with a third-party tortfeasor for all past medical...
A Mississippi appellate court affirmed a state trial court's decision granting summary judgment to the state, as employer, on workers' compensation exclusive remedy grounds following the fatal shooting of a state Gaming Commission employee during a firearms...
Acknowledging that if one business entity was the alter ego of another, the former could not be sued in tort for injuries sustained by an employee of the "alter ego" entity, a New York appellate court found the defendant-business entity failed to establish...
Construing Louisiana law, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, in an unpublished decision, agreed with a federal district court that a former employee could not maintain a civil action against two former employers based on his theory that work-related exposure to...
Finding a person's common law rights could be limited, but not eliminated, the Supreme Court of Oklahoma held a provision in the state's Workers' Compensation Act [12 O.S. 2011 §§1053A] that allowed death benefits only to a spouse, child, or legal guardian...
Where an employee was killed in a trench collapse accident, his estate could not maintain an intentional tort action against the employer where the evidence indicated the employer ceased all work on the trench when the employer's supervisors became aware of...
A divided Pennsylvania appellate court held a well owner and a separate firm that provided specialized services at the well were not statutory employers of a truck driver who contended he sustained injuries when a faulty storage tank value caused the driver to...
A tort action filed by a worker who had been assigned to a firm that utilized forklifts in its warehouse area cannot proceed since the worker's exclusive remedy was pursuant to the New Jersey Workers' Compensation Act, held a state appellate court. The...
The mother of a 14-year-old part-time farm worker, who suffered fatal injuries in an unwitnessed roll-over accident involving a piece of heavy machinery, may not maintain a civil action against the farm owner, held a New York appellate court. Affirming a trial...