Lee v. West Kern Water District

This case involves the applicability of the workers’ compensation exclusivity rule to an unusual set of facts. This rule governs the matter of when an injured worker can bring a civil action against the employer and when he or she is instead limited to the remedy of a workers’ compensation award.

Plaintiff Kathy Lee, an employee of defendant West Kern Water District (district), sued the district and four coemployees for assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress after the coemployees staged a mock robbery with Lee as the victim. In the mock robbery, one of the district’s managers entered the district’s office in a mask and confronted Lee at the cashier’s window with a note demanding money and saying he had a gun. Lee, who had not been informed of the planned mock robbery, handed over the money and subsequently was treated for psychiatric injury. The jury awarded her $360,000.

The trial court denied defendants’ motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict but granted their motion for a new trial. It concluded it had given the jury an inappropriate instruction on the workers’ compensation exclusivity rule.

Lee appealed from the order granting a new…