Conn. high court rules liability waiver doesn’t immunize negligent employer

Requiring a worker to sign a liability waiver does not give blanket immunity to employers if that person is later hurt on the job, the state Connecticut Supreme Court has ruled.

The ruling said the waivers do not protect employers when their negligence caused the worker’s injury. It is the first such ruling in Connecticut to extend that standard to the workplace.

The ruling stems from a suit filed by Robert J. Brown, an instructor at the Skip Barber Racing School in Lakeville, who was critically injured when a student struck him with a car during a class. Lower courts threw out Brown’s suit, citing a liability waiver he was required to sign when he was hired.

The Supreme Court’s ruling reinstated Brown’s case on appeal and ordered the lower courts to consider it again, minus the arguments about the liability waiver.

Liability waivers have been upheld in the past when the person who signed them knowingly engaged in a potentially dangerous activity such as racing, skiing or horseback riding and was injured because of his or her own actions.

But the line always has been drawn when the injury occurred because of liability on the part of the facility operators, regardless of whether a waiver was signed.

The high court upheld that standard again in October, ordering lower courts to reinstate the case of a horseback-riding student who said she was injured after being assigned to a horse that was too difficult for someone with her experience level to handle.

The ruling in Brown’s case holds employers to the same standards as owners of recreational facilities and others who offer products and services to the public.