{"id":"DUT-CA-019","kind":"duty","level":"court","jurisdiction":"California","state":"CA","metro":"","industry":"","agency":"","eco":"","issuer":"California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District","authority":"Labor Code sections 3600, 3602 (workers\u0027 compensation exclusivity); Civil Code section 1714; Labor Code sections 6400-6404","instrument":"Published opinion: See\u0027s Candies, Inc. v. Superior Court (Ek), No. B312241 (Cal. Ct. App. Dec. 21, 2021), 73 Cal.App.5th 66","title":"See\u0027s Candies, Inc. v. Superior Court: a wrongful-death action alleging that an employee contracted COVID-19 at work \u0027because of defendants\u0027 failure to implement adequate safety measures\u0027 and infected her husband is not barred by workers\u0027 compensation exclusivity; the derivative-injury doctrine does not reach the household member\u0027s claim","dateIssued":"2021-12-21","effective":"2021-12-21","end":"n/a (judicial decision; the conduct pleaded is of 2020)","startDate":"2021-12-21","endDate":"","quarters":[],"types":["DUTY","EMP"],"addressees":["employers"],"clause":"Plaintiffs allege that Mrs. Ek, defendants\u0027 employee, contracted COVID-19 at work because of defendants\u0027 failure to implement adequate safety measures. They claim that Mr. Ek subsequently caught the disease from Mrs. Ek while she convalesced at home. He died from the disease a month later.","enforcement":"Civil liability in tort (wrongful death, negligence) outside workers\u0027 compensation exclusivity.","functions":[],"notes":"Held that an employer whose employee alleges infection at work through the employer\u0027s failure to implement \u0027known, appropriate and necessary safety mitigation measures\u0027 (physical distancing among them) answers in tort to the employee\u0027s household for the resulting death, so that the pandemic protocols were, in California, the measure of an employer\u0027s civil exposure beyond the workers\u0027 compensation system. Character as recorded: adjudication (workplace duty construed).","sourceUrl":"https://www4.courts.ca.gov/opinions/archive/B312241.PDF","snapshot":"","fileExists":true,"fileBytes":255211,"grade":"primary","character":"adjudication","description":"","collection":"DUT-CA","url":"/library/DUT-CA-019","exhibitUrl":"/exhibit/DUT-CA-019","citation":"California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Published opinion: See\u0027s Candies, Inc. v. Superior Court (Ek), No. B312241 (Cal. Ct. App. Dec. 21, 2021), 73 Cal.App.5th 66 (Ex. DUT-CA-019)","stateName":"California","related":["DUT-CA-020","DUT-CA-013"]}