Employee, spouse blame employer for COVID-19 infection, but lawsuit fails

A federal court recently dismissed a lawsuit filed by an employee and his spouse attempting to hold his employer liable for both of them contracting COVID-19. The dismissal should bring comfort to employer anxiety over negligence lawsuits by employees and their family members seeking damages for possibly bringing a coronavirus infection home from the workplace.

Virus hospitalizes employee, wife

The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. As one of the first lawsuits of its kind, it alleged the employee’s spouse contracted COVID-19 from the husband-employee, who had brought it home after a coronavirus outbreak at work. They sought damages for their subsequent infection and hospitalization and alleged the employer was negligent in failing to provide a safe workspace, which allegedly caused both infections.

On May 10, 2021, the court dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning the couple may not amend their pleadings to refile it in the future. The court dismissed the matter for two main reasons, one relating to the applicable workers’ compensation law and the other pertaining to an employer’s duty of care to nonemployees:

Workers’ compensation/exclusive remedy. First, the court held the couple’s claims were barred by the state workers’ comp law. California’s law, like those in other states, provides workers’ comp is the exclusive remedy for an employer’s liability when an employee sustains an injury in the course of his employment.