H-2294.1  _______________________________________________

                    SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL 1691

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington      55th Legislature     1997 Regular Session

By House Committee on Commerce & Labor (originally sponsored by Representatives McMorris, Mitchell, Honeyford, Lisk and Mulliken)

Read first time 03/05/97.

Restricting actions against employers under industrial insurance. 

    AN ACT Relating to restricting actions against employers under industrial insurance; amending RCW 51.24.020; and creating a new section.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

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 employee.  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.

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