Ohio Supreme Court: Workers’ comp still favored workplace injury remedy

When Bruce Houdek was pinned between a parked scissor lift and an electric forklift driven by a coworker, his right leg and ankle were crushed and his pelvis was fractured. Normally, workers’ compensation is the sole remedy available to injured workers; in return for giving up their right to sue their employer for negligence, injured workers are supposed to receive workers’ comp benefits regardless of fault.

But what about when injuries are caused by employer conduct that is so egregious it seems they intended for workers to get hurt? That was the question presented in a claim Houdek made against his employer ThyssenKrupp Materials in a lawsuit that recently made it all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court.

Preventable accident, not the same as intentionally causing injury says the high court

Lawsuits against an employer for monetary damages stemming from a workplace injury are disallowed in Ohio unless the employer deliberately tried to hurt workers. Although even deliberately removing a safety guard or deliberately misrepresenting the nature of a hazardous substance can qualify as the type of conduct that would permit an injury lawsuit, proving that an employer actually intended to harm workers is extremely difficult.

According to Bruce Houdek’s lawyers, Mr. Houdek was required to work without a reflective vest in an aisle that was not well illuminated, ThyssenKrupp failed to place safety cones or gates at the end of the aisle to keep machinery from entering and had previously been warned about the kind of accident that happened, but failed to take any action in response. The coworker who was driving the forklift that pinned Houdek reported that he did not see anything until he caught the flash of a helmet.

Workers’ comp paid Houdek’s medical bills, and provided him with partial wage replacement during his recovery (72 percent of his wages for the first three months, and then two-thirds after that). But if Houdek could recover in a personal injury lawsuit, the payout might have been greater, and workers’ comp would have been reimbursed for the payments it made out of any damages awarded.

At the trial level, the judge did not agree with Houdek’s viewpoint that an employer who was aware of a dangerous condition and still instructed an employee to work under that condition could be held liable for intentional injury. The case was dismissed before it got to a jury. At the appellate level, however, a three-judge panel decided the lower court was wrong and that the case should have gone to a jury. Before trial, ThyssenKrupp appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court.

In a 6-1 decision, the highest court in Ohio ruled that ThyssenKrupp did not display the type of “deliberate intent” to injure required to maintain an employee’s lawsuit against his or her employer. The Ohio Supreme Court called Houdek’s injuries the result of a “tragic accident” – one that may have been avoided had certain precautions been taken, but that still did not rise to the level of deliberate injury.

Not everyone was pleased with the outcome. The Ohio AFL-CIO, for instance, fears that the Houdek v. ThyssenKrupp decision guts the substance of Ohio’s employer intentional tort law.

What does Houdek v. ThyssenKrupp mean for injured Ohio workers?

According to data from the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensations, approximately 115,000 Ohioans are injured on the job every year. If you or a family member were among them, the Houdek v. ThyssenKrupp case makes it especially important to ensure you receive the full workers’ comp benefits you are entitled to, as it makes filing an additional intentional injury claim difficult.

Talk to an Ohio workers’ compensation attorney today to learn more about getting the benefits you need to recover from a workplace injury.