Family of woman who died in ‘horrific’ work accident can sue employer, Idaho court says
The family of a woman who died in an industrial workplace accident in 2016 can pursue a lawsuit against the Treasure Valley seed company where she worked, the Idaho Supreme Court ruled on Friday. The new ruling partially overturned a lower court’s judgment and overrides a Supreme Court ruling from 2018 that barred the family from taking action against the company because they received workers’ compensation benefits.
Francisca R. Gomez, 63, was cleaning a new “picking table” at the Crookham Co. seed plant in Caldwell in January of 2016 when her hair became caught on an exposed drive shaft. She was pulled into the machinery and killed. Her family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Crookham and the manufacturer of the picking table in July of 2016.
In a summary statement issued on Friday, the Idaho Supreme Court said it upholds a Canyon County district court ruling stating the Gomez family cannot sue Crookham on the grounds of product liability. That’s because Crookham did not manufacture the equipment that killed Francisca Gomez.
However, the Idaho Supreme Court also ruled that the district court didn’t consider whether Crookham “consciously disregarded knowledge” that the picking table posed a threat to Francisca Gomez’s safety. The Supreme Court sent the case back to district court to determine if the company did disregard its employee’s safety.
If Crookham is found to have ignored potential hazards, the Gomez family could bring a civil lawsuit against the company despite collecting workers’ comp. In Idaho, state law says workers’ compensation is the “exclusive remedy” for employees injured or killed on the job, meaning anyone receiving workers’ comp cannot also take civil action against the employer. That changes if the employer “willfully provoked” circumstances around the injury or death.
According to the Idaho Supreme Court’s recent ruling, the Crookham picking table did not meet standards for “lockout-tagout” requirements that prevent machinery from being used during maintenance. “OSHA had previously cited Crookham for violating machine guard safety standards and lockout-tagout protocol with its former picking tables,” the court wrote.
OSHA also issued “serious” violations to Crookham for the picking table’s exposed drive shaft following Francisca Gomez’s death.
