Andrews v. Peters

VAUGHN, Judge.

The first issue is whether North Carolina’s Workers’ Compensation Act is the exclusive remedy for an employee intentionally injured by a fellow employee. We hold that it is not.

An examination of the development of workers’ compensation laws leads to this conclusion. Before the laws’ advent, some employers voluntarily assumed financial responsibility for their injured employees. Often, however, the employees were relegated to common law tort actions. So many defenses were available to the employer — contributory negligence, assumption of risk, the fellow-servant rule —that it was…