WORKERS' FETUS CAN SUE EMPLOYER  [ back to What's New ]
Normally, an employee hurt on the job cannot sue her employer, because she is limited by law to workers' compensation insurance. However, in Meyers v. Burger King Corp. decided 7/12/01 the Supreme Court of the State of Washington held that when a pregnant employee slipped and fell at work and struck her abdomen against a table, and her baby was born with severe brain damage as a direct consequence, the baby could sue the employer for negligence because the baby was not an employee and because the baby's injuries were personal to her and not derivative of work-related injury to her mother.