Intentional Tort Statute Unconstitutional

Johnson v. BP Chemicals, Inc. (4/14/99), 85 Ohio St.3d 298:

On April 14, 1999, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that Ohio's "employment intentional tort" statute was unconstitutional in its entirety.

An employment intentional tort occurs when an Employer (1) acts with knowledge that a harmful process or condition exists in the workplace, (2) knows that harm to the employee due to that harmful process or condition is a "substantial certainty", and (3) requires the Employee to continue to perform the dangerous task anyway. [The exact requirement is set forth in Syllabus 1 of the Ohio Supreme Court's decision in Fyffe v. Jeno's, Inc. (1991), 59 Ohio St.3d 115.]

The legislature had passed a statute, R.C. 2745.01, which had rewritten the requirements of an employment intentional tort. The statute did a number of things which would have made it virtually (if not actually) impossible to establish an employment intentional tort.

The Supreme Court declared that the legislature had exceeded its authority in attempting to eliminate the employment intentional tort. The Court indicated (at p. 9 of the slip opinion) that the requirements of R.C. 2745.01

created a cause of action that is simply illusory. . . . the requirements imposed by R.C. 2745.01 are so unreasonable and excessive that the chance of recovery of damages by employees for intentional torts committed by employers in the workplace is virtually zero.

As a result, the Supreme Court declared the statute unconstitutional because it is not a law which provides for the "comfort, health, safety and general welfare of all employes" as required by Ohio Constitution, Article II, Sec. 34.

Because the statute has been declared unconstitutional, the intentional tort standard set forth by the Supreme Court (discussed above) will continue to apply to these types of cases.

This is the third time the legislature has attempted to enact an "employment intentional tort" statute which would make it impossible for employees to recover damages from their employer when the employer has committed an intentional tort. Each of the legislature's attempts to do so has been declared unconstitutional.

Click on the case name to view the  decision on the Supreme Court's web site.