SB 5651 - H COMM AMD 614

By Committee on Commerce & Labor

Strike everything after the enacting clause and insert the following:

"NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds that the historic covenant between workers and employers that resulted in the industrial insurance system in Washington was intended to provide both "sure and certain" relief to workers and foreclosure of law suits against employers, without regard to questions of fault by either party. However, this historic compromise also recognized that employers who deliberately injured their employees should not be immune from civil law suit. The legislature therefore finds that the standard used for determining the injuries for which employers can be subject to suit is critical to maintaining the covenant between workers and employers. To protect the no-fault system intended for industrial insurance, this standard must narrowly limit suits against employers to situations in which the employer determined to injure the employee and used some means appropriate to that end.

Sec. 2. RCW 51.24.020 and 1984 c 218 s 2 are each amended to read as follows:

If injury results to a worker from the deliberate intention of his or her employer to produce such injury, the worker or beneficiary of the worker shall have the privilege to take under this title and also have cause of action against the employer as if this title had not been enacted, for any damages in excess of compensation and benefits paid or payable under this title. For the purposes of this section, a worker's injury does not result from the deliberate intention of his or her employer unless the employer had specific intent to injure the worker. The specific intent required under this section must relate to the injury, not to the act causing the injury. The employer has the specific intent required under this section if the employer acts with the objective or purpose to accomplish the worker's injury, using some means appropriate to that end. The court shall determine, as a question of law, the employer's intent."

Correct the title.

EFFECT: The amendment strikes the underlying bill and adds (1) an intent statement regarding the importance to the historic covenant between workers and employees of maintaining employer immunity from civil suits unless the employer determines to injure the worker, and (2) a requirement that to show "deliberate intention," there must be a finding that the employer has specific intent to injure the worker, which means that the employer acts with the purpose to accomplish the worker's injury.