Family of worker killed repairing machine cannot sue in civil court
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An appeals court on Wednesday ruled that the family of a mechanic crushed to death while repairing a machine at a plywood manufacturing plant in North Carolina cannot sue in civil court damages related to his death because he was a “special employee” of the company running the plant, and therefore state law dictates that the case is that of workers compensation.
Citing exclusive remedy, the Court of Appeals of North Carolina classified William Belk as an employee of the Boise Cascade Wood Products LLC plant after he was hired via the Arotek Inc. staffing agency, which his family had claimed workers compensation benefits from following the September 2015 accident, according to documents in The Estate of William Belk, by and through Taquitta Belk v. Boise Cascade Wood Products LLC, a member of Boise Cascade Co., John Doe 1 and John Doe 2, filed in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Mr. Belk’s family, after filing a comp claim, filed a suit against the plywood company, among other defendants. Boise Cascade filed for summary judgment and dismissal in trial court, which denied its motions. The appeals court, in turn, cited “uncontradicted evidence” that Mr. Belk was an employee of the wood company.
“We conclude that there were no genuine questions of fact with respect to whether Mr. Belk was a special, lent employee of Boise Cascade. Even considering the evidence in the light most favorable to Plaintiff, we hold that the evidence conclusively showed that Mr. Belk was a special employee of Boise Cascade. Necessarily, exclusive jurisdiction over Plaintiff's claims rests in the Industrial commission, not the trial court,” Tuesday’s ruling states.
An attorney for the Belk family could not immediately be reached for comment.
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