The family of a worker at a Tyson chicken facility in Texas has filed suit following her wrongful death due to COVID-19. How hard a case will this be? Depends how you frame the causation question. If it is "How can we know whether she got COVID-19 at work?" it might be hard. But "Is it more probable than not that, if she was working massive overtime, sustained a musculoskeletal injury at work after which her employer kept her in an area where there was known COVID-19 infection, failed to keep reasonable safeguards against infection, and her immediate family members/friends did not contract the disease before she did, she sustained COVID-19 at work?" I think there is a clear path to win. In my experience with how Tyson operates, they are not going to come off well. And though the case is federal it is still subject to TX law which means they can't use her own negligence against her.
There is no joy in reporting or even working these cases. After a death, there is no good result for anyone. But Tyson years ago moved out of the Texas workers' compensation system that likely would have limited their liability for this death and provided guaranteed income for her family and chose to have their own pseudo-workers comp coverage that controlled the details of claims and took away freedom from employees about doctors and eliminated state judge and jury accountability for their actions. One can hardly be sympathetic to Tyson in light of this decision.
Comments