The Intentional Act Exclusion and Employers’ Tort Immunity
When a worker is injured at work, legislators have determined that it is in society’s best interests if those medical injuries are covered as quickly as possible by Workers’ Compensation. Workers’ Comp means that the worker does not have to prove that his boss was negligent in order to get basic medical care.
However, sometimes the workplace injury was caused by one of two types of intentional acts. The first type is when a fellow worker intentionally seeks to make contact with a fellow worker, leading to the injury. Then, the worker is entitled to seek damages in a court of law and is not limited to the remedy of workers’ compensation. The second type of work-place injury that falls outside the scope of workers’ compensation remedies is when the workplace practice is substantially certain to lead to the injury.
If you are interested in learning more about what types of injuries have been deemed “intentional acts” over the past twenty years, read this article.