JEFFERSON CITY -- The Missouri Supreme Court is clearly focused on clarifying the boundary between civil and workers' compensation cases in workplace-injury lawsuits these days.

One day after announcing it would soon hear a case that should clarify under which jurisdiction suits involving injuries to sub-contractors should be heard, the Supreme Court today ruled on a case of "affirmative negligence." Such circumstances form part of the distinguishing border between workers' compensation and civil lawsuit cases.

In the case of Eric D. Burns vs. Lynn M. Smith (No. SC87789) an employer (Smith) had welded a water pressure tank over a corroded part of the concrete truck that the employee (Burns) drove and maintained. The tank exploded and seriously injured Burns.

A county circuit court ruled that because Burns was the victim of a negligent act he was not limited to workers' compensation as his "exclusive remedy" and could also pursue civil damages. Smith appealed to the Supreme Court stating that workers' compensation was in fact the only remedy available to Burns.

The Supreme Court upheld the trial court's ruling that Smith's negligent welding, affirmed by witnesses, made the case eligible for a civil suit.

"[D]efendant's conduct constituted an affirmatively negligent act by creating an additional danger beyond that [Burns] normally faced in his job-specific environment," wrote Justice Stephen N. Limbaugh.

The Supreme Court will begin hearing a case tomorrow that will decide whether general contractors are statutory employers of subcontractors. If so they are covered by workers' compensation under the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission rather than suits brought to civil courts in cases of workplace injury.