Vallandigham v. Clover Park School Dist.

Summary

The Washington Supreme Court, sitting en banc, affirmed summary judgment for the Clover Park School District, holding that the deliberate-intention exception to the Industrial Insurance Act did not apply because the district lacked actual knowledge that employee injuries inflicted by a severely disabled special education student were certain to occur; substantial certainty is not enough under the two-prong test. The court also held that willful disregard cannot be measured by a reasonableness or negligence standard, disapproving Stenger and Hope to the extent they allowed willful disregard to rest on the ineffectiveness of an employer's remedial measures. Sanders, J., dissented, arguing the absolute-certainty standard is unworkable and indistinguishable from the facts of Birklid itself; Chambers, J., concurred in the dissent.