The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Missouri
- Level
- Court
- Authority
- Mo. Const. art. V, § 10 (transfer); common law of Missouri; RSMo 287.120 (workers' compensation exclusivity as it stood in 2005)
- Issued
- 2016-06-07 June 7, 2016
- Effective
- standing (statement of Missouri common law) (read as 2016-06-07)
- End
- standing (read as 2021-09-30)
- In force
- Standing since June 7, 2016 (a statutory duty; in force throughout the six quarters)
- Quarters
- 2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Workplace rulesStanding duty
- Addressees
- employers (every Missouri employer, as to every employee)
- Character
- adjudication
- Collection
- Standing duties: Missouri DUT-MO
Operative words
An exception existed, however, under which an employer could be held liable when the injury was caused by a co-employee who was negligent in carrying out the employer's nondelegable duty to provide a safe workplace.... at common law, an employer's duty to provide a safe workplace for employees was not delegable
Penalty
Civil liability in negligence for breach, within the workers' compensation scheme (RSMo 287.120); the duty defines the employer's standard of care
What it required
Every Missouri employer owes its employees a nondelegable common-law duty to provide a safe workplace, a duty the Supreme Court of Missouri treats as settled law and as the organizing principle of co-employee liability; the content of a 'safe workplace' during a declared communicable-disease emergency was supplied by the health orders and the State and federal guidance they incorporated. Character as recorded: adjudication (workplace duty construed).
Retrieval noteThe Court's slip opinion as archived by CourtListener from courts.mo.gov (file.jsp?id=101875, which refuses non-browser requests); The opinion holds that a co-employee is not liable for a breach of the employer's nondelegable duty to provide a safe workplace, restating that duty at slip op. 2-3 ('the employer's nondelegable duty to provide a safe workplace'), 8 (the common-law rule) and 10 ('an employer's duty to provide a safe workplace for employees was not delegable').