February 11, 2012
/24-7PressRelease/ -- Connecticut Supreme Court Looks at Work Injury Compensation
Individuals who suffer injuries on the job due to truck accidents, equipment malfunctions, explosions or other circumstances have a great deal to consider. Workers' compensation is one source of recovery of medical expenses and lost income. Serious injuries resulting from the negligence of another party aside from the employer require further legal action to hold them accountable for the harm they caused.
While workers' compensation is often the exclusive remedy for an employee against his or her employer, a worker can seek damages caused by an employer's intentional tort. A recent appeal of a work injury case decided by the Connecticut Supreme Court considered an employee's ability to seek personal injury damages from an employer for a work-related amputation.
The case, Motzer v. Haberli, involved an apprentice who was working in pursuit of his electrician's license. While installing electrical wiring with another worker at a work site, he lost part of a finger on his left hand when his co-worker inserted a drill into a hole that the man was clearing.
The electrician received workers' compensation benefits, but also filed a claim against his employer for serious and willful misconduct, alleging a failure to properly warn employees about power tool hazards, failure to ensure a safe job site for employees and violations of state and federal workplace safety regulations.
Helping Injured Clients Explore Their Full Range of Options
The primary legal issues on appeal included the trial court's ruling to deny the plaintiff's introduction of expert testimony regarding the employer's safety performance. The court disallowed the evidence and ultimately granted a directed verdict with respect to all claims, concluding that the plaintiff had not established the existence of an intentional tort that caused the injury as required by the exclusivity provision of Connecticut's Workers' Compensation Act.
The court affirmed the trial court's decision, clarifying the substantial certainty standard under state law, which requires an injured worker to establish that an employer's intentional acts resulted in injury that was "substantially certain" to result from such conduct. The court's holding in Motzer provides that the employer's intentional conduct cannot, as a matter of law, be established solely by evidence of its failure to comply with safety regulations and properly train employees.
Accident injury litigation can involve complex legal decisions at every stage of the case, and the value of experienced advice from a seasoned personal injury lawyer is hard to overestimate. No theory of liability will always prevail, but aggressive protection of a client's interests requires a comprehensive assessment of all possible legal options in the aftermath of a car accident, pedestrian accident or other tragic event that leads to a personal injury or wrongful death.
Article provided by Jacobs & Quiles, LLC
Visit us at http://www.ajqlaw.com
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