Employers May Be Protected by Workers Compensation Decisions, But Third Parties Are Not.

The Utah Supreme Court ruled on Friday, May 14, 2010, that a workers compensation decision holding that a worker’s injuries were not caused by the operation of a machine could not be used by by the party that created or designed the machine in a later lawsuit if that party was not the worker’s employer.  The court reasoned in Gudmundson v. Del Ozone that because the third-party could not be a party to the workers compensation claim under the statutory scheme, it should not benefit by the decision.  The court explained that such a decision would not promote judicial efficiency since a worker could not as a practical matter bring the third party into the workers compensation case and, therefore, to bring its claims against the third parties would have to assert the claims in a separate proceeding.