The Supreme Court of Missouri issued an opinion in Missouri Alliance for Retired Americans, et al. v. Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Division of Workers’ Compensation, No. SC88368, ruling on the constitutionality of the 2005 amendments to the Workers’ Compensation Act.  In that decision, the Court found that the constitutional challenges were not ripe for decision because no injured individual challenged the law.  More importantly, however, the Court held elsewhere in the opinion that the exclusive remedy provision of the Act no longer applies if an “injury” does not come within the definition of “accident.”  

We believe this holding has important ramifications for all of our clients, both employers and insurance carriers alike.  First, it creates another avenue of recovery in the civil courts if a claim has been denied through workers’ compensation.  Although an employee will still need to show negligence to prevail in a civil court claim against the employer, Missouri’s comparative fault law still leaves employers and their liability carriers at risk.