United States: Surviving Spouse May Not Maintain Tort Action Against Employer Following Robbery and Murder

The surviving spouse of a woman who worked at a Virginia apartment complex and who sustained fatal injuries when she was attacked and stabbed by a robber cannot maintain a civil action against the employer; the tort action was barred by the exclusive remedy provisions of the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Act (VWCA), held a U.S. District Court in relevant part. The surviving spouse had claimed, among other things, that before the incident his wife had notified the employer that there had been increased criminal activity in the area. The spouse contended the employer had a duty to protect the deceased from foreseeable acts and that the murder was not an accidental injury arising out of and in the course of his wife’s employment. The district court stressed that under the VWCA, while the employee’s death resulted from an intentional act, intentional torts could nevertheless constitute accidents under the VWCA. The robbery and stabbing clearly occurred in the course of the employment and, given the circumstances, also arose out of that employment. The court accordingly dismissed the case against the employer.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Scott v. CG Bellkor, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 44944 (Mar. 27, 2017)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 42.01.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law