Legal Question in Workers Comp in North Carolina

Re: Job related Death

Under NC law, the only remedy which an employee or his family has for an on-the-job injury or death is normally workers compensation. In exchange for the certainty of some recovery in work accident claims, the worker is limited to the recovery set out by the statutes. However, several years ago, our Supreme Court did allow a negligence suit to proceed where the decedent died as the result of conduct on the part of the employer which was "substantially certain to cause serious injury or death." Unfortunately, almost all of the cases interpreting that decision have found distinguishing factors and denied recovery. Thus, it is very unlikely that an employee could successfully bring a separate claim against an employer.

Re: Job related Death

Absent a showing of gross negligence on the part of the company which specifically and directly led to the death of the employee, it's unlikely that the one filing the wrongful death suit would recover anything from the employer in damages.

Evidence of past violations of OSHA regulations would not be sufficient to make the case. You would have to show by a preponderance of the evidence that the company either did or failed to do something(most likely in the area of safety regulations/procedures) which amounted to gross negligence and which consequently and directly led to and caused the demise of the employee.