A woman in Connecticut went to her husband’s workplace so she could bring him lunch and she found him crushed to death under a vehicle which he had been repairing. She sued his employer for emotional injuries that she claimed she suffered as a result of the accident but the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that she could not sue her late husband’s employer. She had received workers’ compensation benefits after her husband’s death.

Jenny Velecela went to see her husband Austin Irwin at his place of work, All Habitat Services, in 2011. She found him crushed under a large all-terrain vehicle. He had been repairing the vehicle and it slipped off the lift and onto him. She received $300,000 in workers’ compensation benefits. She sued his employer further, saying they were responsible for her emotional damage.

The state Supreme Court ruled that since she had been paid workers’ compensation benefits she could not sue for negligence or for emotional distress, because of the exclusive remedy provisions of workers’ compensation laws.

The court had recently ruled on another comparable case in which workers who had been injured in an explosion that had killed other co-workers could not sue a contractor for negligence. The injured workers worked for subcontractors but they had received workers’ compensation from the contractor.