California Court of Appeal

Caso v. Nimrod Prod., Inc., B198347

In a personal injury action brought by a professional stuntman for injuries sustained from a stunt performance, summary judgment based on a finding that the claims were barred by workers' compensation exclusivity rules is affirmed where: 1) the undisputed facts demonstrated that individual-defendants were "special employees" acting within the scope of employment at the time of the accident, thus precluding a co-employee's action against them under workers' compensation rules; 2) plaintiff did not present any evidence showing that corporate-defendants retained control over individual-defendants so as to impute vicarious liability, notwithstanding their special employment relationship with plaintiff's employer; and 3) claims of loss of consortium were barred by workers' compensation exclusivity.

Appellate Information

• Decided 05/14/2008
• Published 06/04/2008

Judges

• PERLUSS, P.J.

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• McNicholas & McNicholas, John P. McNicholas and Robert P. Wargo, Los Angeles;  Joshua M. Merliss, Los Angeles, for Plaintiffs and Appellants Christopher Caso and Anna Marie Caso.


• For Appellees:
  
• Law Office of Thomas H. Edwards and Thomas H. Edwards, Pasadena, for Defendants and Appellants Nimrod Productions, Inc., Peter O'Fallon, Merritt Yohnka, Randy Hall, Ryan Productions, Inc., and Merritt Yohnka, Inc.