Opinion ID: 2364919
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Intentional tort claims against the security guards

Text: Fanders asserts that her intentional tort claims, based on assault and battery and wrongful imprisonment, were properly brought against the security guards because they committed intentional acts that caused her injuries. She acknowledges that the NIIA is the sole remedy for accidental workplace injuries, but she argues that her injuries were caused by intentional acts, not accidental ones. Respondents counter that the NIIA is the sole remedy for work-related injuries, including injuries resulting from assaults by coemployees, as Nevada only recognizes intentional tort claims against an employer. The NIIA, with few exceptions, provides the exclusive remedy for an employee on account of an injury by accident sustained arising out of and in the course of the employment. NRS 616A.020(1) (emphasis added). The statute defines an accident as an unexpected or unforeseen event happening suddenly and violently, with or without human fault, and producing at the time objective symptoms of an injury. NRS 616A.030. This court has recognized, however, that an employee may avoid the workers' compensation exclusive remedy provisions when an employer deliberately and specifically intended to injure [the employee]. Conway v. Circus Circus Casinos, Inc., 116 Nev. 870, 875, 8 P.3d 837, 840 (2000); accord Barjesteh v. Faye's Pub, 106 Nev. 120, 122, 787 P.2d 405, 406 (1990) (holding that an employer who commits an intentional tort against his employee cannot claim that the act was accidental, so that workers' compensation is the employee's exclusive remedy). A viable intentional tort claim, which subjects an employer to liability outside of the workers' compensation statute, requires the employee to plead facts in his or her complaint that establish the deliberate intent to bring about the injury. Conway, 116 Nev. at 875, 8 P.3d at 840. This court has not addressed whether an employee can maintain an action outside of the workers' compensation statute against a coemployee who purportedly commits an intentional tort against the employee. We perceive no reason why common-law tort liability should not extend to purported tortious conduct by a coemployee tortfeasor. This is consistent with our decision in Wood v. Safeway, Inc., 121 Nev. 724, 121 P.3d 1026 (2005). Although the Wood court found that workers' compensation applied to the plaintiffs claims against her employer, the court went on to analyze her claims against the subcontractor that employed her assailant under the vicarious liability statute, NRS 41.745. Wood, 121 Nev. at 736-41, 121 P.3d at 1034-37. Thus, although not expressly discussed, the Wood decision implied that the NIIA is not the sole remedy for certain claims against coemployees. We now make that implication express and hold that when a plaintiff states a viable intentional tort claim against a coemployee, that claim is not barred by the NIIA's exclusivity provisions. Fanders' complaint contains factual allegations relating to her stated tort claims based on intentional conduct, rather than an accident, and thus, Fanders is not limited to recovery under the NIIA on her intentional tort claims against the security guards. The security guards do not dispute that Fanders stated intentional tort claims against them in her pleadings. Further, they did not argue in the district court that they were entitled to summary judgment on any basis other than the NIIA's exclusivity provision. Thus, even if the district court concludes that Fanders' claims arose out of and in the course of her employment with Riverside, she may still pursue her assault and battery and wrongful imprisonment claims against the security guards. [3]