A woman whose son was stabbed to death by a coworker while working the night shift at a suburban Arby’s restaurant can’t sue her son’s former employer, because the slaying occurred while on the job, limiting her to what she can recover on behalf of her deceased son through Illinois’ workers’ comp law, a state appeals court has ruled.
On Aug. 8, a three-justice panel of the Illinois First District Appellate Court sided with the owners of an Arby’s franchise restaurant, dismissing them from a lawsuit filed by plaintiff Doreen Price, on behalf of her deceased son John F. Price.
According to court documents, Doreen Price filed suit in 2018 against Lunan Roberts Inc., a company that owns an Arby’s franchised restaurant in Hickory Hills, in southwest suburban Cook County.
Illinois First District Appellate Justice Nathaniel Howse
| Illinoiscourts.gov
According to court documents, John Price was working the late night drive through shift at the restaurant on Sept. 20, 2017, when he was attacked by his lone coworker that evening, Irvin Thomas, two minutes after Thomas had clocked in at 10:02 p.m.
Thomas was seen on surveillance video footage attacking Price with a large kitchen knife, ultimately stabbing him 27 times. Price escaped, but died later as a result of his injuries.
Thomas was later arrested and charged with murder.
Doreen Price sued both Thomas and the Lunan company over her son’s death. She claimed the restaurant owners knew of problems in the workplace involving Thomas, and between Thomas and John Price, but allegedly did not do anything to prevent any kind of violence, much less a reportedly savage knife attack.
Lunan Roberts, however, argued the lawsuit was foreclosed by the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act, which the courts noted “generally serves as the exclusive remedy for a person who is injured during the course of employment.” So, they said, Doreen Price is limited to whatever workers’ comp she may recover using the claim procedures laid out in that law.
Those amounts are typically far less than payouts that can be secured through personal injury or wrongful death lawsuits in court.
Doreen Price responded by arguing the attack was a result of a personal conflict between Thomas and her son, and not merely a workplace incident.
To back that claim, Doreen Price claimed Thomas and her son had engaged in a range of non-work-related transactions, including an occasion on which she alleged John Price may have “given Thomas a (PSP) game console worth hundreds of dollars.” On other instances, the mother asserted her son may have purchased or dealt drugs in connection with Thomas.
Cook County Judge Melissa A. Durkin sided with Lunan Roberts on that key question, and granted summary judgment to the Arby’s franchisee.
The appeals court backed the judge’s ruling.
The appellate justices said the evidence Doreen Price presented to back her claims of a personal conflict between her son and Thomas was insufficient and amounted only to speculation.
That, they said, means her lawsuit cannot overcome the lawsuit protection granted to the employer under the Workers’ Comp Act, which presumes that an act of violence committed in the workplace by one coworker toward another is work-related, unless another party can prove otherwise.
“While there is no evidence that the dispute was work related, there is similarly no evidence that the dispute was personal, and plaintiff had the burden of producing evidence the dispute was personal,” Howse wrote.
Doreen Price was represented by attorney James E. Coogan, of Coogan Gallagher, of Park Ridge.
Lunan Roberts was represented by attorneys David S. Osborne and Philip G. Brandt, of Lindsay Pickett & Postel, of Chicago.