There are exceptions linked to just about every rule. The rules concerning the workers’ compensation system have not escaped that predicted outcome.
What is the basic rule in a workers’ compensation system?
An employee that has suffered a job-related injury cannot sue an employer that has arranged for the company’s workers to obtain access to worker’s compensation coverage. Hence, someone that works for an employer that has failed to invest in worker’s compensation coverage does have a right to sue that same employer, if he or she should get injured, while on-the-job.
What are the less-obvious exceptions to that basic rule?
Personal injury lawyer in Yorba Linda knows that if an employer has tried to conceal the existence of an injury in a worker, because it was caused by conditions on the worksite, the injured worker does have a right to sue that same employer. If an employer assaults an employee, or if a co-worker assaults a fellow employee, and the employer makes no effort to intervene, then the assaulted individual has the right to sue his or her employer.
If a factory owner were to make a certain product and did not arrange for the proper level of quality control, that same factory could turn out a defective product. If, by chance, one of the factory’s workers were to purchase that same defective product, and then, as a result, got injured, the injured consumer/worker would have the right to sue the factory owner, who was that same worker’s employer.
If an employee were to slip and fall at a location that was controlled by the same employee’s boss, and if that fall resulted in an injury, then the injured employee would have the right to sue his or her employer. The above exception leaves open the definition of “control,” concerning the employer’s control of the spot where the slip and fall incident happened. Suppose, for example, that the owner of a company rented the top floors of a parking facility, so that there would be enough parking spaces for all of the employees.
Suppose the same company owner decided to assign sections of the 2 floors to those working in specific departments. Would that represent control? Could that fact allow for the filing of a lawsuit, if some worker that parked on one of the 2 designated floors got hurt by slipping and falling in that same designated area?
What rules would apply to any incidents that might take place after an employee’s car had been parked, and the car’s owner then needed to walk to his or her worksite? Suppose the worker’s path called for performance of the act of jaywalking. Could the employer get sued for any accident that might occur, due to the jaywalker’s actions?