What Do You Think?
The “affirmative act” exception to Georgie’s exclusivity rule allows employees injured at work to sue employers for personal injury under certain circumstances. A case involving a teen tragically killed while running heavy machinery addresses whether a supervisor’s affirmative act can make him vulnerable to being sued by an injured co-worker.
The 16-year-old worked for a subcontractor performing grading work at a construction site for a mine. He was fairly new to the job and new to operating heavy machinery. At one point, purportedly while under the direction of his supervisor, who worked for the same company, the heavy machinery he was operating rolled over and he was killed.
The teen’s parents sued the supervisor in tort.
Could the parents sue the supervisor under Georgia law?
A. Yes. The exclusive remedy rule in Georgia does not protect co-employees from tort lawsuits, only the employer itself.
B. No. The deceased employee and his supervisor were employed by the same subcontractor.
If you selected B, you agreed with the court in Thigpen v. Prickett, No. A26A0276 (Ga. App. 06/12/26), which affirmed with the lower court’s ruling.
To learn about the exclusive remedy rules in your state, turn to Simply Research.
The exclusive remedy provision, the court explained, applies whether the injured employee is attempting to sue his employer or a fellow employee who caused the injury. The same is true when survivors sue on a deceased employee’s behalf. Thus, this was a straightforward case in which the survivors were barred from suing the supervisor in tort.
The court rejected the parents’ assertion that the exclusive remedy rule did not apply because the supervisor engaged in an affirmative act that caused or increased the risk of injury. Here, the deceased and his supervisor worked for the same company, the court said. The affirmative act exception does not apply to a lawsuit between co-employees, according to the court.
The court pointed out that the parents misapplied the language from the landmark Pardue v. Ruiz, 429 S.E.2d 912 (Ga. 1993) case. The court explained that Pardue was specifically about whether a high-level executive (a vice president) of a general contractor could be sued by an employee of a subcontractor. Here, the deceased and supervisor were co-employees.
