A man in Texas who had been awarded a significant sum for his injuries had his case overturned by the Texas appeals court, on the grounds that his injury was a work injury and his exclusive remedy was workers’ compensation.

Tyler Lee was working at a construction site as a superintendent for a general contractor, Skanska USA Building Inc. An employee of Berkel & Company Contractors Inc., Chris Miller, told his crane operators to try and move around to free a stuck auger even though others were concerned that this might be unsafe. During the maneuvers the crane broke in half, and leads on the crane fell on Lee who was standing behind a safety barrier. He had his left leg amputated above the knee as a result of his injuries.

Lee obtained workers’ compensation benefits through Skanska but sued Berkel in Texas for negligence, gross negligence and intentional injury. He was awarded $35 million in damages and $8.5 million in damages for gross negligence from Berkel who appealed.

The appeals court overturned the decision because his employer had workers’ compensation insurance for their subcontractors and their employees. Berkel was a subcontractor of Skanska. Therefore Berkel was a statutory employee of Skanska and Lee was a statutory co-employee of Berkel. Berkel was also liable for Miller’s actions, the worker who told the cranes to move, and though it was found that his actions were substantially certain to result in an injury, that was not enough to make him liable. It was not an intentional injury because there was no intent to harm a particular person even though there may have been suspicion that the activity was dangerous. The Texas Workers’ Compensation Act prevents recovering common-law damages with just a few exceptions, such as the intentional injury exception, and so Mr. Lee’s award was overturned.

From Law360 and WCI360