An employee injured at work generally is limited to workers’ compensation benefits, which the worker is entitled to receive whether the employer was negligent or not. If an employee can prove he or she contracted COVID-19 at work — which California law makes easier if there is an outbreak in the workplace — the employee is eligible for (and limited to) workers’ compensation benefits.
But what if the employee contracted COVID-19 at work due to the employer’s inadequate safety measures, then transmitted the disease to a spouse at home and the spouse soon died from COVID-19?
Late last month, the California Court of Appeal ruled that an employee and her daughters were not limited to workers’ compensation benefits if they could prove those facts, even though their loss would not have occurred without the employee’s work-related COVID-19 infection.
Matilde Ek allegedly contracted COVID-19 in March 2020 while working on the packing line of See’s Candies. She recovered at home, where she lived with her family. Her husband allegedly contracted COVID-19 from Ek and died from the disease the following month.
Ek and her daughters sued See’s Candies, alleging that See’s Candies failed to protect Ek and her co-workers from the known risks of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 by failing to implement reasonable safety measures, including social distancing in the packing lines, restrooms and break rooms. The Eks sought damages for Mr. Ek’s death, including their loss of his...
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