Could Widow of Driver Packed into Hotel During Pandemic Sue for Negligence?

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Santa Maria, CA (WorkersCompensation.com) -- Employees, or their survivors, may be able to sue a company for negligence, and thus bypass the workers’ compensation exclusivity rule, if they can show the company fraudulently concealed their injury.

A case involving a company bus driver packed into a hotel with coworkers during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic shows what it might take for an employer to expose itself to liability through that exception. 

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In June 2020, the employee was living in close quarters with coworkers in a hotel where the company housed employees. He contracted the virus while staying there and died soon thereafter.

The employee’s widow sued the company for negligence. The company asked the court to throw out the case, because the exclusive remedy provision made workers’ compensation benefits the widow’s sole remedy.

In her lawsuit, the widow alleged that:

• The company knew the hotel placement would cause the virus to spread there.
• The company became aware of a COVID-19 outbreak at the hotel before the employee was exposed to the virus there.
• The employee did not know about the outbreak at the hotel and the company failed to notify its employees of the situation or implement safety measures.
• The employee began having COVID-19 symptoms while at the hotel and notified his superiors of his symptoms
• Upon learning of the employee’s symptoms, the company did not inform him of the outbreak or that his symptoms were consistent with COVID-19.
• The employee tested positive a week after reporting his symptoms and died a few days later.

Generally, an employee injured in the course of employment is limited to the remedies available under the Workers' Compensation Act. The employee, or survivor, therefore, may not sue the company for negligence. 

An exception exists where the employee's injury was aggravated by the employer's fraudulent concealment of the existence of the injury and its connection with the employment. An employee, or his survivor, falls within that exception if she shows that:

1. The employer knew that the employee had suffered a work-related injury; 
2. The employer concealed that knowledge from the employee; and 
3. The injury was aggravated as a result of such concealment. 

Could the widow sue the company for negligence?

A. No. The employee should have left the hotel as soon as his symptoms began.

B. Yes. The company’s decision not to tell him about the virus, and about the significance of his symptoms, caused his illness to worsen.

If you selected B, you agreed with the court in Chavez v. Alco Harvesting, LLC, No. B329282 Cal. Ct. App. 06/17/24), which held that the widow asserted a viable claim that the company acted fraudulently.

The court pointed out that the widow alleged that her husband died of COVID-19 complications after contracting the disease while working for the employer. She claimed the company deliberately concealed the outbreak, as well as the nature of her husband’s illness. That concealment, she contended, resulted in the worsening of his illness, his inability to recover, and his subsequent death.

The widow plausibly alleged that the fraudulent concealment exception applied to her lawsuit, the court held. It reversed the trial court’s dismissal of the case

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