Employer-Employee: Failure to Hire-Workers’ Compensation Retaliation

Plaintiff appealed the grant of summary judgment for defendant, his former employer. While working on a project for defendant, plaintiff informed his foreman that he was suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome and asked to fill out an injury report. The foreman allegedly told plaintiff that he would be terminated if he filed an injury report, and defendant did terminate plaintiff when it learned he intended to file an injury claim. Plaintiff alleged that defendant subsequently refused to hire him for another position despite having a union referral.

Where plaintiff was not an employee of defendant’s when it refused to hire him, he could not assert a workers’ compensation retaliation claim because an employer-employee relationship was a necessary element of such a claim.

Judgment is affirmed.

Lisle v. Meyer Electric Co., Inc. (MLW No. 79919/Case No. SC99670 – 13 pages) (Supreme Court of Missouri, Breckenridge, J.) Appealed from circuit court, Jackson County, Roldan, J. (Kenneth D. Kinney, Kansas City, for appellant) (David R. Wallis, Glen R. Ehrhardt, and Elizabeth H. Weber, Columbia, for respondent)