Did You Bring Home Covid? Spouse Sues Company for Infection Bloomberg 2/18/2021 Joel Rosenblatt
(Bloomberg) A federal judge is weighing what she called a first-of-its-kind lawsuit that would hold an employer responsible for a worker’s spouse getting sick with Covid-19.
Plenty of families have sued businesses, from retailers to meatpacking plants, claiming that unsafe workspaces during the pandemic caused a worker’s sickness. But Corby Kuciemba and her husband Robert Kuciemba are going an extra step by blaming his employer, Victory Woodworks Inc., for spreading the illness into his household.
“This is the first time someone is making the claim that if you have Covid and you live with someone who has a job, you can sue the employer for potentially having given you Covid,” said Bill Bogdan, a lawyer for the company.
A California federal judge said Friday she was "fed up" and "worn out'' after Albertsons and its Littler attorney pushed her to greenlight problematic terms in a portion of its $3.3 million settlements with job seekers alleging the supermarket giant pulled their consumer reports without consent, flouting the Fair Credit Reporting Act.