Please E-mail suggested additions, comments and/or corrections to Kent@MoreLaw.Com.
Help support the publication of case reports on MoreLaw
Nedzad Mehmedovic, et al. v. Tyson Foods, Inc., et al.
Date: 05-23-2025
Case Number: 23-0502
Judge: John J. Sullivan
Court: District Court, Black Hawk County, Iowa
Plaintiff's Attorney: Bryan Ulmer, Mel Orchard, Tom Frerichs, Luke Guthrie and John J. Rausch
Defendant's Attorney: David Yoshimura and Nicholas Klinefeldt defendant Hart, Brustkern, Casey, Tapken, and Hook.
Eric B. Wolff Kevin J. Driscoll Eric G. Hoch, Christopher S. Coleman, Jessica L. Everett-Garcia, Margo R. Casselman, and Samantha J. Burke for Defendants Tyson Foods Inc., Tyson Fresh Meats Inc., Tyson, White, Banks, Stouffer, Brower, White, Jones, and Adams.
Description:
Waterloo, Iowa personal injury lawyers represented the Plaintiff on negligence theories.
Several estates filed suit against Tyson Foods Inc. and several of its corporate executives and plant supervisors, alleging gross negligence and fraud when four former workers at Tyson Foods's pork processing plant in Waterloo died after contracting COVID-19.
In early January 2020, Chinese state media reported the first known death from a respiratory disease caused by a novel coronavirus that became known as COVID-19. Tyson Foods has extensive meatpacking operations and business interests in China. By February, Tyson's Chinese operation halted some of its plants and reduced or slowed operations at others to stem the spread of COVID-19 and protect workers. Tyson formed a company-wide COVID-19 task force after observing COVID-19's effect on its Chinese operations and workforce.
Tyson's Chinese operation soon implemented several COVID-19 protection polices in its Chinese plants, including providing masks and other appropriate personal protective equipment to employees, using infrared temperature monitors to check employees' temperatures twice a day, installing air filtration systems, establishing quarantine observation areas for workers who were potentially infected, restricting access to facilities by symptomatic employees, and preventing employees from gathering in cafeterias and breakrooms.
Tyson's largest pork processing plant in the United States was located in Waterloo, employing nearly 3,000 workers and processing close to 20,000 hogs every day. It operated under a wholly owned subsidiary called Tyson Fresh Meats Inc. By March, COVID-19 had made its way to Waterloo. President Trump issued a national emergency declaration, and Governor Reynolds followed with a statewide emergency proclamation. Days after those proclamations, Tyson told its corporate employees to begin working from home. The Waterloo plant remained operating at full capacity.
Days after ordering its corporate employees to work from home, Tyson sent an email to its Waterloo plant workers ordering them to keep coming to work despite what it referred to as "stories about 'shelter in place.[']" When plant workers were symptomatic, they were told that they couldn't go home until they received a positive COVID-19 test. One worker approached his supervisors at the Waterloo plant and said that he was symptomatic and was awaiting a test result. He was told to go back to work. Days later, that test result came back positive. This went against Tyson's flu season policy requiring that symptomatic workers go home.
The plant continued to allow sick workers to stay at work. One worker who vomited on the production line was allowed to continue to work. Another worker who tested positive was told to keep working after the test result came back. One supervisor specifically directed his employees to show up to work even if they were exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms. This supervisor intercepted a worker who was attempting to leave work to get tested and told the worker to get back to work, saying, "[W]e all have symptoms-you have a job to do." The supervisor also referred to COVID-19 as the "glorified flu," telling his workers not to worry because "everyone is going to get it."
In April, COVID-19 transmission at the plant surged. Supervisors and managers began to avoid the plant floor, delegating their managerial duties to nonmanagerial staff. Supervisors cancelled regularly scheduled safety meetings with workers. Tyson began to log the workers calling in sick with COVID-19 symptoms. (See chart, right.) Although these began to be tracked as "COVID-19 symptoms,†Debra Adams, the associate director of occupational health for Tyson Fresh Meats, told Mary Jones, the occupational nurse at the plant, to have the nursing staff change its coding from "COVID-19 symptoms†to "flu-like symptoms.†The sick-call log showed a nearly exponential increase in absenteeism among Waterloo plant workers, shown here.
* * *
Legal issue Does Iowa's Workers' Compensation Act preclude gross negligence claims against coemployees for COVID-19 related deaths at a workplace, and can intentional tort claims proceed against corporate defendants outside of the Act's exclusivity provisions?
Headnote
WORKERS' COMPENSATION LAW. EXCLUSIVITY OF REMEDY. The court addressed whether Iowa's Workers' Compensation Act provided the exclusive remedy for claims related to the deaths of workers who allegedly contracted COVID-19 at their workplace, assessing if an exception for gross negligence applied.
NEGLIGENCE. CORPORATE LIABILITY. The court examined claims of gross negligence against corporate executives and plant supervisors, focusing on whether the plaintiffs sufficiently pleaded facts to meet the legal standard for gross negligence under Iowa Code § 85.20.
TORT LAW. FRAUDULENT MISREPRESENTATION. The court considered whether claims of fraudulent misrepresentation against corporate and supervisor defendants were a disguised form of gross negligence and whether they were preempted by the Workers' Compensation Act.
TORT LAW. INTENTIONAL TORTS. The court deliberated whether claims against corporate entities for intentional torts, premised on alleged directions to commit fraud, escaped preemption by the Workers' Compensation Act's exclusivity provisions.
STATUTORY INTERPRETATION. COVID-19 LIABILITY. The court interpreted the Iowa COVID-19 Response and Back-to-Business Limited Liability Act's applicability to the defendants and whether exceptions to the Act's liability protections were sufficiently pleaded.
JURISDICTION. SUBJECT MATTER JURISDICTION. The court analyzed whether the district court had subject matter jurisdiction over the estates' claims against employers beyond the workers' compensation system, assessing legal claims for gross negligence and intentional torts.
Key Phrases Workers' compensation act. Gross negligence claims. Fraudulent misrepresentation. Subject matter jurisdiction. COVID-19 workplace outbreak.
Several estates filed suit against Tyson Foods Inc. and several of its corporate executives and plant supervisors, alleging gross negligence and fraud when four former workers at Tyson Foods's pork processing plant in Waterloo died after contracting COVID-19.
In early January 2020, Chinese state media reported the first known death from a respiratory disease caused by a novel coronavirus that became known as COVID-19. Tyson Foods has extensive meatpacking operations and business interests in China. By February, Tyson's Chinese operation halted some of its plants and reduced or slowed operations at others to stem the spread of COVID-19 and protect workers. Tyson formed a company-wide COVID-19 task force after observing COVID-19's effect on its Chinese operations and workforce.
Tyson's Chinese operation soon implemented several COVID-19 protection polices in its Chinese plants, including providing masks and other appropriate personal protective equipment to employees, using infrared temperature monitors to check employees' temperatures twice a day, installing air filtration systems, establishing quarantine observation areas for workers who were potentially infected, restricting access to facilities by symptomatic employees, and preventing employees from gathering in cafeterias and breakrooms.
Tyson's largest pork processing plant in the United States was located in Waterloo, employing nearly 3,000 workers and processing close to 20,000 hogs every day. It operated under a wholly owned subsidiary called Tyson Fresh Meats Inc. By March, COVID-19 had made its way to Waterloo. President Trump issued a national emergency declaration, and Governor Reynolds followed with a statewide emergency proclamation. Days after those proclamations, Tyson told its corporate employees to begin working from home. The Waterloo plant remained operating at full capacity.
Days after ordering its corporate employees to work from home, Tyson sent an email to its Waterloo plant workers ordering them to keep coming to work despite what it referred to as "stories about 'shelter in place.[']" When plant workers were symptomatic, they were told that they couldn't go home until they received a positive COVID-19 test. One worker approached his supervisors at the Waterloo plant and said that he was symptomatic and was awaiting a test result. He was told to go back to work. Days later, that test result came back positive. This went against Tyson's flu season policy requiring that symptomatic workers go home.
The plant continued to allow sick workers to stay at work. One worker who vomited on the production line was allowed to continue to work. Another worker who tested positive was told to keep working after the test result came back. One supervisor specifically directed his employees to show up to work even if they were exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms. This supervisor intercepted a worker who was attempting to leave work to get tested and told the worker to get back to work, saying, "[W]e all have symptoms-you have a job to do." The supervisor also referred to COVID-19 as the "glorified flu," telling his workers not to worry because "everyone is going to get it."
In April, COVID-19 transmission at the plant surged. Supervisors and managers began to avoid the plant floor, delegating their managerial duties to nonmanagerial staff. Supervisors cancelled regularly scheduled safety meetings with workers. Tyson began to log the workers calling in sick with COVID-19 symptoms. (See chart, right.) Although these began to be tracked as "COVID-19 symptoms,†Debra Adams, the associate director of occupational health for Tyson Fresh Meats, told Mary Jones, the occupational nurse at the plant, to have the nursing staff change its coding from "COVID-19 symptoms†to "flu-like symptoms.†The sick-call log showed a nearly exponential increase in absenteeism among Waterloo plant workers, shown here.
* * *
Legal issue Does Iowa's Workers' Compensation Act preclude gross negligence claims against coemployees for COVID-19 related deaths at a workplace, and can intentional tort claims proceed against corporate defendants outside of the Act's exclusivity provisions?
Headnote
WORKERS' COMPENSATION LAW. EXCLUSIVITY OF REMEDY. The court addressed whether Iowa's Workers' Compensation Act provided the exclusive remedy for claims related to the deaths of workers who allegedly contracted COVID-19 at their workplace, assessing if an exception for gross negligence applied.
NEGLIGENCE. CORPORATE LIABILITY. The court examined claims of gross negligence against corporate executives and plant supervisors, focusing on whether the plaintiffs sufficiently pleaded facts to meet the legal standard for gross negligence under Iowa Code § 85.20.
TORT LAW. FRAUDULENT MISREPRESENTATION. The court considered whether claims of fraudulent misrepresentation against corporate and supervisor defendants were a disguised form of gross negligence and whether they were preempted by the Workers' Compensation Act.
TORT LAW. INTENTIONAL TORTS. The court deliberated whether claims against corporate entities for intentional torts, premised on alleged directions to commit fraud, escaped preemption by the Workers' Compensation Act's exclusivity provisions.
STATUTORY INTERPRETATION. COVID-19 LIABILITY. The court interpreted the Iowa COVID-19 Response and Back-to-Business Limited Liability Act's applicability to the defendants and whether exceptions to the Act's liability protections were sufficiently pleaded.
JURISDICTION. SUBJECT MATTER JURISDICTION. The court analyzed whether the district court had subject matter jurisdiction over the estates' claims against employers beyond the workers' compensation system, assessing legal claims for gross negligence and intentional torts.
Key Phrases Workers' compensation act. Gross negligence claims. Fraudulent misrepresentation. Subject matter jurisdiction. COVID-19 workplace outbreak.
Outcome:
Affirmed in part and reversed in part.
Plaintiff's Experts:
Defendant's Experts:
Comments:
About This Case
What was the outcome of Nedzad Mehmedovic, et al. v. Tyson Foods, Inc., et al.?
The outcome was: Affirmed in part and reversed in part.
Which court heard Nedzad Mehmedovic, et al. v. Tyson Foods, Inc., et al.?
This case was heard in District Court, Black Hawk County, Iowa, IA. The presiding judge was John J. Sullivan.
Who were the attorneys in Nedzad Mehmedovic, et al. v. Tyson Foods, Inc., et al.?
Plaintiff's attorney: Bryan Ulmer, Mel Orchard, Tom Frerichs, Luke Guthrie and John J. Rausch. Defendant's attorney: David Yoshimura and Nicholas Klinefeldt defendant Hart, Brustkern, Casey, Tapken, and Hook. Eric B. Wolff Kevin J. Driscoll Eric G. Hoch, Christopher S. Coleman, Jessica L. Everett-Garcia, Margo R. Casselman, and Samantha J. Burke for Defendants Tyson Foods Inc., Tyson Fresh Meats Inc., Tyson, White, Banks, Stouffer, Brower, White, Jones, and Adams..
When was Nedzad Mehmedovic, et al. v. Tyson Foods, Inc., et al. decided?
This case was decided on May 23, 2025.