Court Upholds Award of Damages From Supervisor Who Removed Safety Guard

The Missouri Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld a trial court's award of $873,000 in damages to a worker who filed a negligence suit against his supervisor. Although Missouri Revised Statutes Section 287.120.1 generally immunizes co-employees from civil liability for a workplace injury, the statute allows a suit to proceed if a co-employee engaged in an affirmatively negligent act that purposefully and dangerously caused or increased the risk of injury to the plaintiff employee. The court concluded that Mark Edwards’ removal of a safety guard from a laminating machine was...