Doney

In February 1988, Richard Wade Farley killed numerous employees of ESL during a murderous rampage in ESL offices in a building owned by ESL. Plaintiffs are the heirs of some of the ESL employees killed by Farley. Plaintiffs brought a wrongful death action against defendant TRW, Inc., and its wholly owned subsidiary ESL for negligence and premises liability. Summary judgment was entered in favor of ESL based on the exclusive remedy provisions of the Workers’ Compensation Act (Lab. Code, § 3602). Defendant TRW thereafter obtained a summary judgment in its favor. Plaintiffs appeal contending that there were triable issues of material fact which precluded summary judgment in TRW’s favor. The critical issue on appeal is whether an action can proceed against a parent corporation on an alter ego theory for its subsidiary corporation’s conduct when the subsidiary corporation is shielded from such an action by the exclusive remedy provisions of the Workers’ Compensation Act. Plaintiffs also claim that summary judgment was precluded because there were disputed factual questions underlying their claim that TRW was directly liable to them because it voluntarily undertook to protect…