Workers’ Compensation: Lawsuit Against Tosco Tries End Run Around Workers’ Comp Limits

A Tosco worker injured in a catastrophic 1999 explosion and fire at the company’s Martinez refinery and the family of another worker killed in the disaster have filed a lawsuit against Tosco. Employees who are injured on the job are generally limited to workers’ comp benefits. But this lawsuit attempts to sidestep this restriction by arguing that Tosco committed a crime by allegedly concealing a known danger and insisting that employees stay on the job despite the risk. A Contra Costa County judge has so far refused Tosco’s efforts to have the case thrown out. The families of the contract workers killed in the explosion, who were not Tosco employees and therefore not limited by workers’ comp laws, have settled lawsuits against the company for a total of $21 million.