Moreau v. Moreau's Material Yard, LLC

Summary

The Louisiana Supreme Court considered whether an employee’s surviving spouse could pursue a tort action against the employer based on alleged unsafe working conditions and inadequate safety equipment. The court held that the allegations did not establish an intentional act or substantial certainty of injury sufficient to overcome workers’ compensation exclusivity, reversed the district court, and granted summary judgment for the employer.

Holdings

1. An intentional act requires either a conscious desire to produce the physical result or knowledge that the result is substantially certain to follow. Allegations that an employer required work under unsafe conditions and failed to provide safety equipment, without facts showing that injury was inevitable or incapable of failing to occur, do not satisfy the substantial-certainty requirement.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the plaintiff sufficiently alleged an intentional act under La. R.S. 28:1032(B) to avoid the workers' compensation exclusive-remedy provision.
2. Whether the employer was entitled to summary judgment because unsafe working conditions, inadequate safety equipment, and knowledge of risk did not establish that the injury was substantially certain to occur.

Disposition

reversed