New Scholarship on Pre-Injury Waivers of the Right to Sue Third Parties

            Employees who sustain work-related injuries are, of course, normally free to sue third parties said to be liable in the injury.  The Pennsylvania Supreme Court, however, has held that it is legitimate for an employer to demand from an employee a pre-injury waiver of the employee’s right to sue such a third party.  Bowman v. Sunoco, Inc., 65 A.3d 901 (Pa. 2013).  Pennsylvania aligns itself with the majority on this issue.

            Now, however, a New Jersey appellate court has disapproved of such waivers. See Vitale v. Schering-Plough Corp., 146 A.3d 162 (N.J. Super. 2016).  The New Jersey Supreme Court has accepted the case on appeal.

            In the wake of this developing law, a talented law student has authored an essay, Employee Waivers of the Right to Sue Third Party Tortfeasors: Law, Policy, Recent Developments, and Implications for Workers’ Compensation and the Injured Workers it Serves.  The author, Alex M. Lonnett, who attends Pitt Law School, has, with this essay, won first place in the law student writing contest sponsored by ABA-founded College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers.  Mr. Lonnett is generally sympathetic to the minority rule, concluding that such waivers “undermine the foundational philosophy behind workers’ compensation statutes and harm both the employee and employer.”  

            Mr. Lonnett has provided this writer with the final version of the essay.  It’s available from DavdTorrey@aol.com.