Appeals court says exclusive remedy doesn’t apply in shooting death lawsuit

The Georgia Court of Appeals Monday reversed an earlier court ruling that said exclusive remedy barred a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a man who was shot by a coworker at a Solo Cup factory in Conyers, Georgia.

Cameron Golden in 2019 fatally shot Taurus Andrews over a dispute unrelated to the workplace, as documented in Deborah Simmons v. Solo Cup Operating Corp.

Mr. Andrews had discovered a bag of identification cards and turned it in to a supervisor, who found that the bag belonged to Mr. Golden, who accused Mr. Andrews of stealing money that had allegedly been in the bag, leading to the altercation. Mr. Golden pleaded guilty to murder.

Mr. Andrews’ surviving family members sued Solo Cup “alleging that (the company) negligently hired and retained Golden and negligently failed to keep its premises safe.”

Solo Cup maintained that the exclusive remedy provision in the state’s workers compensation law barred the wrongful death lawsuit. The trial court agreed, saying, “Golden’s anger toward Andrews arose from the performance of his job duties — i.e., turning in Golden’s mislaid bag.”

The appeals court disagreed, writing that “because any alleged theft was entirely unrelated to Andrews’s performance of his work, we find — as a matter of law — that the (Workers’ Compensation Act) does not apply here.”