Brenda Hendrix

Summary

The court held that the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Act’s exclusive-remedy provision barred the estate’s wrongful-death and survival claims against the decedent’s employer, even though the decedent’s asbestos-related disease manifested outside the Act’s three-year repose period. Because the Act generally covers occupational diseases and specifically addresses asbestos-related claims, the court treated the repose period as a limitation on recovery rather than proof that no statutory remedy existed. The court also rejected a jurisdictional challenge based on the failure to appeal the administrative law judge’s decision. Justices Hart and Danielson, joined by other justices, dissented on the ground that the repose period extinguished the claim before it accrued and therefore left the estate entitled to pursue a common-law action.