Shelli Farley v. City of Claremore

Claremore, Oklahoma worngful death personal injury lawyer represented the Plaintiff on a Government Tort Claims Act negligence theory.

Surviving spouse of a former fireman for the City of Claremore filed a petition in the District Court of Rogers County against the City of Claremore. Surviving spouse sought damages for wrongful death and an injunction against the City of Claremore. The City of Claremore filed a motion to dismiss seeking dismissal of the action with prejudice. The Honorable Sheila A. Condren, District Judge, granted the motion to dismiss and the surviving spouse appealed. The appeal was retained for disposition by the Oklahoma Supreme Court. We hold: (1) A tort action seeking damages for a surviving spouse, surviving child, and parents of a deceased adult child does not survive in a 12 O.S. § 1053 wrongful death action when: (a) Statutes provide an exclusive worker's compensation remedy for survivors which is substituted for a wrongful death action; and (b) The decedent's employer possesses governmental tort claim sovereign immunity barring a tort action for damages at the time of decedent's death; (2) The brother of the deceased did not possess a section 1053 claim for loss of companionship; and (3) Plaintiff lacked standing to seek injunctive relief.



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Plaintiff, a surviving spouse, successfully obtained a death benefits award in the Workers' Compensation Commission. She then brought a District Court action for damages alleging the death of her spouse was caused by negligence and an intentional tort committed by her spouse's employer who is a local government entity. She argued her action was also for the benefit of her surviving child, as well as the surviving parents and brother of the deceased.

A tort action for damages suffered by a surviving spouse, surviving child, and parents of a deceased adult child does not survive for the purpose of a 12 O.S. § 1053 wrongful death action when: (a) The wrongful death action arises from an injury compensable by an exclusive workers' compensation remedy and the tort action is brought against the employer of the deceased; and (b) The employer possesses governmental tort claim sovereign immunity. The wrongful death injury was adjudicated and compensated by a successful workers' compensation claim after the death of the decedent. This successful adjudication demonstrates the decedent's injury was exclusively before the Commission and not cognizable as a District Court claim at the time of decedent's death. The parents' action for loss of companionship damages was extinguished at the time of decedent's death and did not survive. We hold the local government entity possessed sovereign immunity because the governmental tort claim against the City was for liability for an injury properly compensated by a claim before the Workers' Compensation Commission. The brother of the deceased did not possess a wrongful death § 1053 action for loss of consortium. We also conclude plaintiff lacked standing to seek injunctive relief. We affirm the District Court's dismissal of the petition with prejudice.