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Labor Code Section Bars Lawsuit by Family of Volunteer Killed at School Event—C.A.
Opinion Says Provision That Those Donating Time to School District May Be Deemed ‘Employees’ for Workers’ Compensation Purposes, Defeats Jurisdiction
By a MetNews Staff Writer
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CATHERINE KUO decedent |
Div. Four of the First District Court of Appeal has held that a Labor Code section providing that school volunteers may be deemed “employees” for purposes of workers’ compensation—and so bound to those benefits as their sole remedy for any injuries—precludes the family members of an Alameda county school board trustee from suing the district for negligence relating to her death, after she was crushed by car during a food donation event.
In an opinion, filed Wednesday and authored by Sonoma Superior Court Judge Dana B. Simonds, sitting by assignment, the court rejected the plaintiffs’ arguments that “injury” in the section does not include death and that the decedent was never formally “deemed” to be an employee by any official act, reasoning the law should be interpreted broadly to limit tort liability for school districts and provide benefits to injured parties.
At issue is Labor Code §3364.5, which provides:
“[A] volunteer…authorized by the governing board of a school district…to perform volunteer services for the school district…shall, upon the adoption of a resolution of the governing board of the school district…so declaring, be deemed an employee of the district…for the purposes of this division and shall be entitled to the workmen’s compensation benefits provided by this division for any injury sustained by him while engaged in the performance of any service under the direction and control of the governing board of the school district or the county superintendent.”
Dublin Unified School District (“DUSD”), located in Alameda County, adopted a resolution in December 2011, saying that “in accordance with Section 3364.5 of the Labor Code, volunteers shall be entitled to Workers’ Compensation benefits for any injury sustained by him/her while in the performance of any service under direction and control of the District Superintendent.”
Food Distribution Event
Catherine Kuo, then one of five elected trustees for DUSD, was killed on March 24, 2021, after she showed up to Fallon Middle School to help with a “Farmers to Families Food Box Program,” which provided fresh food to families negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. While she was loading a box of supplies into the rear of one vehicle, another car pulled behind and suddenly lurched forward, crushing Kuo.
She was transported to a hospital, where she later died of her injuries.
In February 2022, her husband filed a complaint against the district, on behalf of himself and the couple’s two minor children, asserting causes of action for negligence and premises liability and alleging that the defendant failed to implement and communicate basic safety protocols at the event.
Then-Alameda County Superior Court Judge Tara M. Desautels (now an associate justice of the First District Court of Appeal) granted DUSD’s motion for summary judgment, saying “Section 3364.5 Defeats Jurisdiction.”
Addressing plaintiffs’ arguments, she reasoned that “[i]ncluding death within the meaning of injury is consistent with the volunteer being ‘deemed’ an employee for the purposes of workers’ compensation under section 3364.5,” explaining that the broader statutory scheme applicable to workers includes fatalities.
She also rejected the contention that Kuo could not be said to have been “authorized by the governing board of the school district or the county superintendent of schools” where there was no official delegation of power.
Wednesday’s opinion, joined in by Acting Presiding Justice Jon B. Streeter and Justice Jeremy M. Goldman, affirmed the ensuing judgment.
Statutory Interpretation
Framing the dispute, Simonds wrote:
“This appeal presents two questions of statutory interpretation: whether the term ‘any injury’ covers fatal injuries like the one Kuo sustained here, and whether DUSD volunteers were ‘deemed’ employees under section 3364.5.”
Looking to the plain meaning of the term “any injury,” she concluded that fatal ones “unambiguously fall into the category,” noting that case law agrees with such an interpretation in other contexts.
The plaintiffs cite the definition of “injury” in Labor Code §3208, which “govern[s] the construction and meaning of the terms and phrases used” in the Workers’ Compensation Act (“WCA”), pointing out that the explanation does not include any mention of death. The provision defines the term as “any injury or disease arising out of the employment, including injuries to artificial members, dentures, hearing aids, eyeglasses and medical braces.”
Unpersuaded, Simonds said that “while section 3208 does list examples of injuries that are not fatal, those examples are not exhaustive.”
Noting that Senate Bill No. 336 added §3364.5 to the act in 1967 to address concerns that schools are increasingly utilizing the services of unpaid workers, who were “neither compensated nor covered by insurance,” she said the Legislature evinced an intent to provide volunteers with the same coverage as employees.
She remarked that the “primary objective[s]” of the WCA are to protect injured workers and to insulate an employer from tort liability, and that “excluding fatal injuries from coverage under statutory provisions like section 3364.5” would work against these purposes.
‘Deemed’ Employees
Simonds rejected the idea that a volunteer can only be “deemed” an employee by an official school board action, saying:
“Nothing in the statute supports plaintiffs’ position that a resolution must explicitly use the word ‘deemed’ to trigger section 3364.5. Section 3364.5 requires only that the governing board adopt a resolution ‘so declaring.’ DUSD did exactly that….We do not read into the statute any additional requirement to use magic words, as such an interpretation would defy [the Legislative] command that the WCA be liberally construed.”
The plaintiffs note that the district did not produce any documents in response to discovery requests for “notices to or communications with volunteers advising them they had workers’ compensation coverage” or for reports showing any previous claims by, or payments to, unpaid workers.
However, the jurist said that the absence of such documentation does not prove that DUSD has not “deemed” its volunteers to be employees. She declared:
“[T]he plain language of section 3364.5 provides for its application ‘upon the adoption of a resolution of the governing board of the school district or the county board of education so declaring.’ DUSD satisfied this condition by adopting its Resolution.”
The case is Kuo v. Dublin Unified School District, 2025 S.O.S. 633.
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