Update on COVID-19 Lawsuits Against Employers

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) began monitoring COVID-19-related cases with potential implications for workers compensation insurance. Many of the cases to date have dealt with determinations of whether contraction of COVID-19 is work-related and therefore compensable, or the application of exclusive remedy where employees contract COVID-19 and sue their employers in tort. In 2022, NCCI also saw courts consider the issue of whether an employer is liable in tort for injuries sustained by the spouse of an employee who allegedly contracted COVID-19 at work and spread it to the spouse at home.

2022 COVID-19 Decisions:

In the case of See’s Candies, Inc. v. Superior Court, the California Court of Appeal, Second District, found that an employer that has not taken adequate measures to prevent the spread of COVID in the workplace may be held liable if an employee contracts COVID at work and spreads it to a third-party, such as a spouse, if the third-party suffers a resulting injury.

In Corby Kuciemba, et al. v. Victory Woodworks, Inc., the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has asked the California Supreme Court to evaluate if employers have an enforceable legal duty to non-employees for non-employees’ injury resulting from COVID-19 “take-home” exposure.

And in Ohio, in Yeager v. Arconic Inc., an appellate court found that an employee’s contraction of COVID-19 was not an occupational disease in WC because the employee failed to show that the employment created a risk of contracting COVID-19 in a greater degree and different manner than the general public.

In Garcia Rodriguez v. Blaine Larsen Farms, Inc., the federal District Court for the Northern District of Texas held that a migrant farm worker’s death from COVID-19 fell within the scope of workers compensation law. The NCCI noted that this decision is part of a growing body of rulings that bar liability lawsuits related to the pandemic against employers.

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