Opinion ID: 766950
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Workers' Compensation Exclusivity Defenses

Text: The jury found against Marcia Paul and William Welk on Thorne's state law tort claims of intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress. The district court granted post-trial motions for judgment as a matter of law on these claims, reasoning that under Missouri law, Welk and Paul were entitled to workers' compensation immunity. See Nichols v. American Nat'l Ins. Co., 945 F. Supp. 1242, 1248 (E.D. Mo. 1996). Thorne has appealed these rulings which we review de novo. Swanson v. White Consol. Indus., Inc., 30 F.3d 971, 973 (8 th Cir. 1994). Missouri's Workers' Compensation Law provides for the liability of employers for accidental injury of employees. Mo. Rev. Stat. § 287.120(1). The term accident includes, but is not limited to injury or death of the employee caused by the unprovoked violence or assault against the employee by any person. Id. The Act provides an exclusive remedy and therefore preempts all other common law rights and remedies on account of such accidents. Mo. Rev. Stat. § 287.120(2). The Act thereby supplants and supersedes common law rights whenever the injury is accidental as that term is used within the statute. Jones v. Jay Truck Driver Training Ctr., Inc., 709 S.W.2d 114, 115 (Mo. 1986) (en banc). It is well settled that it is the exclusive jurisdiction of the Missouri Labor and Industrial Relations Commission to determine whether an employee's injuries were the product of an accident for purposes of Workers' Compensation preemption. Goodrum v. Asplundh Tree Expert Co., 824 S.W.2d 6, 8 (Mo. 1991) (en banc); Killian v. J&J Installers, Inc., 802 S.W.2d 158, 161 (Mo. 1991) (en banc); Jones, 709 S.W.2d at 115. The Commission made no such determination of the Plaintiff's claims. Because Missouri law deprives courts of the jurisdiction to decide the accidental quality of common law state law tort claims, the district court was correct in granting judgment as a matter of law. Accordingly, this aspect of the district court's judgment will be affirmed.