Soares

Appellant David C. Soares sued Zeddie Williams and their common employer, the City of Oakland, for a battery at a job site. Respondents prevailed in a jury trial. Appellant contends that the judgment must be reversed because of errors in the jury instructions and the special verdict form. The issue is whether the statute excepting “willful and unprovoked physical act[s] of aggression” by coemployees from the exclusive remedy of workers’ compensation covers all batteries at common law, or only those batteries committed with a specific intent to injure. (Lab. Code, § 3601, subd. (a)(1).) We conclude that this statute refers only to acts that are intended to injure. Since the trial court reached the same conclusion, we affirm the judgment.

Facts

Appellant was working as a civilian jailer at the Oakland city jail on the night of June 29, 1984. His supervisor was respondent Williams, a police sergeant. One of Williams’s duties was to intervene if a jailer assaulted a prisoner. Williams testified that he was standing in the admitting section of the jail when he heard appellant yell twice at a prisoner, “ Tm going to knock you down if you point that pen at me.’ ” Williams was…