The Georgia Court of Appeals on Friday affirmed the dismissal of tort claims filed by the parents of a 16-year-old worker who was killed while operating heavy machinery at a construction site, ruling that the state’s workers compensation law provided the exclusive remedy.
In Thigpen et al. v. Prickett et al., the appeals court held that Brian and Patricia Thigpen, individually and as surviving parents of Brian Thigpen Jr., could not pursue tort claims against Raymond Prickett, Brian’s supervisor at Terra Excavating.
Brian, who was new to operating heavy machinery, had been employed by Terra for about three weeks when he was working at a surface mining granite quarry owned by Vulcan Construction Materials, according to the ruling. Terra was performing grading work at the site as a subcontractor.
The court said Brian was operating a compactor on an elevated dirt pad when the machine slid off the pad and rolled, killing him.
The Thigpens argued that Mr. Prickett committed an affirmative act that should allow their tort claims to proceed outside the Georgia Workers’ Compensation Act’s exclusive-remedy provision. The appeals court disagreed.
The court said Brian and Mr. Prickett were both employed by Terra, making the case “an ordinary suit against a co-employee of the same employer,” which is barred when the injury arose out of and in the course of employment.
The court also said that even if the “affirmative act” exception cited by the Thigpens applied, the record did not show that Mr. Prickett affirmatively instructed Brian to operate the compactor. The court said Mr. Prickett told Brian to stay in the middle of the pad and away from unstable edges and was not in the immediate area when Brian operated the machine.
The appeals court affirmed the trial court’s dismissal.