Iowa Top Court finds Co-employees may Face Tort Action, Regardless of Public Employment

Case File

A deceased worker's co-employees argued that they could not face a tort claim for the worker's workplace death because they worked for a public employer. The Iowa Supreme Court looked at the definition of "employer" to decide otherwise. Simply Research subscribers have access to the full text of the case along with compliance information from across the United States.

Case

Estate of McFarland v. Skinner, No. 24-1745 (Iowa 01/09/26)

What Happened

Armed with hammers and a grinder they had obtained from an Iowa prison's machine shop, inmates beat to death a corrections officer. The officer's estate sued the officer's co-employees, alleging that they had been grossly negligent in allowing the inmates to have access to dangerous tools and to take those tools onto prison grounds.

The district court denied the co-employee's motion for dismissal, prompting an appeal to the Iowa Supreme Court.

Rule of Law

Under Iowa workers' compensation law, the rights and remedies for an employee on account of injury "shall be the exclusive and only rights and remedies of the employee" against:

(1) The employee's employer.

(2) Against any other employee of the employer, provided that the injury arises out of and in the course of the employment and is not caused by the other employee's gross negligence accounting to such lack of care as to amount to wanton neglect for the safety of another.

In other words, in Iowa, workers' compensation is an employee's exclusive remedy for a work-related injury as against their employer or co-employees, except for gross negligence claims against co-employees, per Mehmedovic v. Tyson Foods, Inc., 21 N.W. 3d 412 (Iowa 2025).

What the Iowa Supreme Court Said

The Iowa Supreme Court rejected the co-employees' argument that there could be no co-employee gross negligence claims for public employees, reasoning that their interpretation "set up a conflict" in how state law used the term "employer."

The court pointed out that the relevant statute defined "employer" to include a "state, county, municipal corporation, school corporation, area education agency," meaning that the exception included state and local government employers.

"We conclude that [state law] does not bar an injured state employee from bringing claims outside of workers' compensation against a co-employee for gross negligence," the Iowa Supreme Court wrote.

Verdict: Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded.

Takeaway

While Iowa exclusive remedy statute does not permit a tort action against an employer, it does permit such an action against co-employees, including those who work for public employers, with a showing of gross negligence.

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