Watters Associates v. Superior Court

Opinion

MERRILL, J.

Temporary employment agency defendants ask us to prevent further prosecution of a superior court action for damages because the plaintiff’s exclusive remedy against them is under the workers’ compensation statutes. We issue a writ at the demurrer stage because petitioners’

[1324]

right to relief is clear and the decision may be important to other temporary employment agencies.

(See Babb

v.

Superior Court

(1971) 3 Cal.3d 841, 851 [92 Cal.Rptr. 179, 479 P.2d 379].)

As a general rule, where the conditions for compensation exist, benefits under the Workers’ Compensation Act provide the exclusive remedy against an employer for injuries sustained in the course of employment. (See Lab. Code, § 3602;

1

2 Witkin, Summary of Cal. Law (9th ed. 1987) Workers’ Compensation, § 25, p. 578.) However, among the exceptions to this general rule is the “power press” exception stated in section 4558, subdivision (b): “An employee, or his or her dependents in the event of the employee’s death, may bring an action at law for damages against the employer where the employee’s injury or death is proximately caused by the employer’s knowing removal of, or knowing failure to install, a point of operation guard on a power press, and this removal or failure to install is specifically authorized by the employer under conditions known by the employer to create a probability of serious injury or death.”

The purpose of the “power press” exception was explained in a recent appellate decision: “The obvious legislative intent and purpose in section 4558 is to protect workers from employers who wilfully remove or fail to install appropriate guards on large power tools. Many of these power tools are run by large mechanical motors or hydraulically. (Cal. Admin. Code, tit. 8, § 4188.) These sorts of machines are difficult to stop while they are in their sequences of operation. Without guards, workers are susceptible to extremely serious injuries. For this reason, the Legislature passed section 4558, subdivision (b), which subjects employers to legal liability for removing guards from powerful machinery where the manufacturer has designed the machine to have a protective guard while in operation.”