Chandler Telecom, LLC v. Burdette

Peterson, Justice.

This case presents the question of whether an employee may — in deliberate disobedience of his employer’s explicit prohibition — act in a knowingly dangerous fashion with disregard for the probable consequences of that act, and still recover workers’ compensation when injured by that disobedient act. We conclude that OCGA § 34-9-17 (a), as we have interpreted it for nearly a century, may bar recovery in such cases.

Adrian Burdette was seriously injured when he fell while attempting a controlled descent from a cell-phone tower in contravention of instructions by his employer,…