Law Is Upheld Limiting Workplace Intentional Tort Lawsuits

In April of 2010, the Supreme Court of Ohio, in a pair of decisions, upheld the state law that limits the ability of workers who are injured on the job to sue their employers for a workplace intentional tort while they are also receiving state workers’ compensation benefits. The law requires workers who assert intentional tort claims against employers to prove that the employer acted deliberately to cause injury in committing the act or omission that resulted in the worker’s injury. The rulings mean that injured workers, while entitled to receive workers' compensation benefits through the state, will have a more difficult time bringing injury cases against their employers.

At issue was an Ohio workers' compensation law originally created in 1912 and amended several times throughout the years. The 1912

version of the law mandated compensation for injured workers through Ohio's workers' compensation law. In the 1980s, a general law was passed to allow workers to sue for “workplace intentional tort.” The law was then altered several times to limit the type of workplace injuries workers could sue for in addition to their workers’ compensation benefits.

The challenged version of the law was passed in 2005. That version specified that in order to prevail in an intentional tort action asserting a “substantial certainty” claim, the employee must show that his or her employer acted “with deliberate intent to cause an employee to suffer an injury...”

The cases challenged the constitutionality of the law and asked the Court to consider the employees’ claims using the lower standard set

forth in the previous version of the law.

In determining that the law was constitutional, the Court wrote that workers' compensation laws are "the result of a unique mutual compromise between employees and employers." "Employees give up their common-law remedy and accept possibly lower monetary recovery, but with greater assurance that they will receive reasonable compensation for their injury. Employers in turn give up common-law defenses but are protected from unlimited liability."

The Court also held that, while the law limits the ability of workers to assert common law employer intentional tort claims, it does not eliminate such claims.

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