Nevada High Court Reinstates Casino Worker Civil Suit

January 4, 2011 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – The Nevada Supreme Court has revived a lawsuit filed by an employee of a Las Vegas casino against a casino security guard, saying Nevada worker’s compensation laws don’t bar such litigation.

Chief Justice Michael Douglas, writing for the state’s high court, said a lower court judge was wrong to throw out the suit by plaintiff Juana Fanders against the employer, Riverside Resort & Casino, after she was forcibly removed from the casino grounds and held in custody until police arrived. According to the ruling, the guards were instructed to evict her from the premises after a dispute arose over her work conduct.

The lower court had dismissed the suit after ruling that Fanders only legal remedy was under the workers’ compensation law because the reported injuries she complained of in the suit arising from her arrest were suffered in the course of her employment by the casino.

Douglas contended in the Supreme Court ruling, however, that there remained a number of factual issues about whether Fanders’s injuries were, in fact, suffered while acting as a casino employee. But, even if it is later determined the injuries were work related, Douglas continued, that does not mean she can’t pursue them in a separate civil suit while also pursuing a workers’ compensation claim.

The Douglas opinion is at http://www.nevadajudiciary.us/index.php/advancedopinions/921-fanders-v-riverside-resort-a-casino.

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