Florida: Food Store Manager’s Murder By Jealous Assailant Arose Out of and In Course of Employment

Fatal injuries sustained by a food store manager was struck and run over by a car driven by a man who claimed to have been reacting to the decedent’s alleged sexual harassment of the man’s girlfriend, who worked as a cashier at the food store, arose out of and in the course of the employment in spite of the personal animosity that triggered the event, held a Florida appellate court. Reversing a decision of a state Judge of Compensation Claims and quoting Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the appellate court found that the nature of the work environment–collecting shopping carts in the employer’s parking lot–did, indeed, place the decedent at risk incident to the hazards of his industry and that while the decedent had no apprehension of personal animosity of a co-worker’s jealous boyfriend, there was no question that the “genesis” for the dispute giving rise to the fatal injuries was in the workplace.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is a leading commentator and expert on the law of workers’ compensation.

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance. Bracketed citations link to lexis.com.

See Santizo-Perez v. Genaro's Corp., 2014 Fla. App. LEXIS 7596 (1^st DCA, May 19, 2014) [2014 Fla. App. LEXIS 7596 (1^st DCA, May 19, 2014)]

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 8.01 [8.01]

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

For more information about LexisNexis products and solutions connect with us through our corporate site