The family of a roofer who fell 33 feet to his death in 2016 cannot sue the employer because the employer did not know for sure that failure to follow its own safety policies and federal regulations workplace safety would result in an accident, the South Dakota Supreme Court said Wednesday.
Although Justin Althoff’s death in 2016 was “tragic”, the High Court said the estate established at best only that Pro-Tec Roofing Inc. knowingly ignored a known risk or was negligent, and that does not not enough to escape the exclusive recourse of the workers. compensation, according to Lynn Althoff v. Pro-Tec Roofing Inc., delivered to Peter.
“The fact that Pro-Tec knew that failure to strictly follow OSHA requirements or its own safety policies could result in a fall does not of itself establish a material question of fact in a dispute over the question of whether Pro-Tec committed an intentional act, i.e., Pro-Tec knew that a fall was virtually certain to occur as a result of his conduct,” the court wrote.
Pro-Tec did not provide safety harnesses for employees, but instead used a warning line system to mark the edge of the building. However, Pro-Tec did not follow the standards set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for placing warning lines. And the company has not designated anyone to monitor people working around the warning lines, as required by OSHA.
Pro-Tec reportedly claimed that it operated on the belief “that it is the responsibility of every employee to look out for each other.”
OSHA fined Pro-Tec $77,000 for infractions that included failing to educate employees on fall hazards and failing to use an appropriate fall prevention system. OSHA designated Pro-Tec’s failure to properly configure its warning line and its failure to dedicate a safety monitor as “deliberate” violations.
OSHA had previously cited Pro-Tec for fall protection failures and the estate argued that the company was clearly aware that it was required to take steps to protect its workers from falls from roofs, and his failure to do so meant that serious injury or death “was absolutely certain.”
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