INJURED ON PROPERTY ACCIDENT WHILE WORKING – CAN WORKER SUE PROPERTY OWNER IN ADDITION TO GETTING WORKERS COMPENSATION?
We received a call yesterday from a nice man who works as a church custodian. He was injured on the property when he was lifting a piano with another person. The other person dropped his end, causing the injury. The caller was receiving workers compensation for his serious injury. However, he asked our personal injury lawyer if he could also sue the owner of the property because he was injured on their property. The answer is, ‘it depends.’
Generally, workers compensation is the exclusive remedy for a person injured on the job in Minnesota. This means a worker can usually not sue a co-employee or the employer or business owner for causing the work injury. However, there are some exceptions to this general rule. There are a few situations where you can sue the property owner, even though you are receiving workers compensation.
THIRD PARTY LIABILITY FOR WORK INJURY
First, the injured worker can sue a third party that contributed to the accident. For example, a pizza delivery driver can collect workers compensation benefits and still bring a claim against a driver that ran a red light and hit him. Likewise, our lawyers represent postal workers who fell and are injured on private property while delivering the mail.
A worker can receive workers compensation benefits and still sue a property owner who is not his employer. For example, an office building where the elevator fails and injures the employee. However, if the employer owns the building or property, the worker cannot sue the employer as a property owner. In the case of the caller mentioned above, the custodian could not sue the church for the injury with the piano. In that case, there was no third party involved. Both employees worked for the church.
Another exception in the workers compensation law is when the employer or a co-employee is grossly negligent. This situation arises very rarely. It requires the employer or co-employee to commit an intentional act that could injure another worker and show almost no regard to the worker’s safety. Our lawyers are currently working on a case like this where a worker was driving an ATV on the job with another worker as a passenger. In that case, the driver drove very recklessly resulting in the ATV rolling over and injuring our client.
WORKERS COMP DOES NOT PAY 100%
If you have been injured at work and think you may have a claim against a third party in addition to workers compensation, call us to speak with a lawyer. The initial consultation is free. An experienced personal injury attorney will discuss your case and explain your rights to you. Workers compensation alone will not fully compensate you. It does not even pay 100% of wage loss. If our lawyers can take your case, we will make sure you are fully compensated.