Missouri: Employee Need Not Show Comp Claim Was Exclusive Factor in Retaliatory Firing

A divided Supreme Court of Missouri held that in order to make a submissible case for retaliatory discharge under § 287.780 R.S.Mo., an employee must demonstrate that his or her filing of a workers’ compensation claim was a “contributing factor” to the employer’s discrimination or the employee’s discharge. The majority of the high court indicated in relevant part that the employer’s contention that courts should utilize an “exclusive causation” standard was unfounded. The majority also indicated that to the extent the decisions in Hansome v. Northwestern Cooperage Co., 679 S.W.2d 273 (Mo. banc 1984), and Crabtree v. Bugby, 967 S.W.2d 66 (Mo. banc 1998), were inconsistent with the instant decision, they were overruled.

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 Templemire v. W & M Welding, Inc., 2014 Mo. LEXIS 111 (Apr. 15, 2014) [2014 Mo. LEXIS 111 (Apr. 15, 2014)]

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 104.07 [104.07]

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

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