Close Menu
William D. Shapiro Law, Inc.
Call For A Free Consultation
Inland Empire:909-890-1000
Facebook Linkedin
Call Now

Industrial Danger: Tesla Ordered to Pay After ‘Willful Misconduct’ Crushed Worker

Industrial Danger: Tesla Ordered to Pay After ‘Willful Misconduct’ Crushed Worker

Most of the time, an employee cannot sue their employer after an injury accident. California’s workers’ compensation system is built to be your only path after a job injury, no matter who caused it — that covers ordinary carelessness, even serious carelessness. But California law also punishes employers more severely when they know about a serious danger and ignore it anyway. Sometimes that means a bigger workers’ comp payout. In narrower cases, it means the door to a lawsuit outside the system opens entirely.

A recent case out of a Tesla factory shows how the first path works. A worker named Paul Janikowski had his legs crushed under three tons of steel skids on the production line. Tesla’s own incident report noted he was yelling for help the entire time it happened. A workers’ compensation judge later found that Tesla’s conduct rose to serious and willful misconduct under California law, and Tesla was ordered to pay Janikowski an additional penalty on top of his standard workers’ comp benefits — money the law reserves for employers whose own conduct crosses a specific line, not just for an unlucky accident.

That distinction matters here, too. California law recognizes when an employer’s own choices, not just bad luck, caused your injury. A San Bernardino personal injury lawyer can help you find out whether your case qualifies for increased workers’ comp benefits, a separate lawsuit outside the workers’ comp system, or both.

At William D. Shapiro Law, Inc., our personal injury attorneys have spent over four decades building the kind of track record that comes from investigating workplace injuries throughout San Bernardino and Southern California. Call us at 909-890-1000 or fill out our confidential contact form to find out where your case stands.

What Happened to the Tesla Worker

Janikowski had worked at the factory for years under previous manufacturers before Tesla took over the line he was assigned to. A few months into Tesla’s operation, the equipment malfunctioned and started on its own while he was crossing it, pulling him down and trapping his legs under heavy steel skids. He needed four surgeries to repair the damage.

According to reporting from the San Antonio Express-News, Tesla shut the entire operation down soon after, and a coworker who found him said the company knew how dangerous the setup had been all along.

Janikowski had already received standard workers’ comp benefits covering his medical bills and lost wages. Because a workers’ compensation judge found Tesla’s conduct rose to serious and willful misconduct under California Labor Code Section 4553, Tesla was ordered to pay an additional penalty (equal to half of his total benefits) on top of what he’d already received. That’s compensation tied directly to the company’s own conduct, awarded through the workers’ comp system itself rather than through a separate civil trial.

Why Workers’ Comp Is Usually the Only Option in California

California Labor Code Section 3602 sets up what attorneys call the exclusive remedy rule. Get hurt on the job, and you file a workers’ comp claim. You get medical treatment and a share of your lost wages, and you don’t have to prove your employer did anything wrong. In exchange, your employer is shielded from a lawsuit, even if they were careless.

That trade-off works fine for ordinary accidents. It breaks down when an employer’s conduct goes past carelessness into something closer to disregard for a worker’s safety.

When an Employer’s Misconduct Increases Your Workers’ Comp Award

The Tesla case is the clearest example of the first way: even while you stay inside the workers’ comp system, an employer’s serious and willful misconduct can significantly increase what they owe you.

If a workers’ compensation judge finds that your employer’s serious and willful misconduct caused your injury, your employer can be ordered to pay an extra 50% on top of your benefits. It’s a real financial consequence, decided within the workers’ comp process, not a separate lawsuit.

When California Law Lets You Sue Your Employer Directly

Separately, California law also carves out a narrower set of situations where you can step outside the workers’ comp system entirely and sue your employer directly, the way you would after being hurt by a stranger’s negligence. A personal injury lawyer reviewing your case will check it against a handful of narrow exceptions:

  • The employer or a manager physically assaulted you on purpose
  • The employer hid the existence of your injury or its connection to your job, and that concealment made things worse
  • The employer never carried workers’ comp insurance in the first place
  • A safety guard was removed from a power press machine, and that removal caused your injury
  • A defective product that the employer manufactured and sold to someone else circled back and injured you as an employee

Each one requires real proof, not just a feeling that your employer should have done more.

What Counts as Willful Misconduct

Courts look for an employer who understood a piece of equipment or a working condition was dangerous and kept using it anyway.

  • Disabling a safety guard to speed up production counts.
  • Assigning a worker to broken machinery already flagged in a prior incident report counts.
  • Telling an employee not to report an injury because it might cost them their job.

These go past negligence. They show a choice.

In 2024 alone, California’s private industry employers reported 344,500 nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Most of those will move through workers’ comp without issue. A small number involve exactly the kind of employer conduct that opens the door to civil court.

What to Do If You Were Hurt on the Job

Report the injury in writing right away, even if your supervisor brushes it off. Get medical care and keep every record. Write down what happened while it’s fresh, including what coworkers saw or said.

Don’t sign anything from your employer’s insurance carrier without a personal injury attorney reviewing it first. Workers’ comp claims and civil claims run on different deadlines, and missing either one can cost you money you’re owed.

Most workplace injuries end with a workers’ comp claim and nothing more, and that’s by design. But when an employer’s own choices created the danger, California law gives you another path. The Tesla case shows workers’ comp judges are willing to hold companies accountable when the proof is there.

Contact Our San Bernardino Personal Injury Law Firm

You don’t have to figure out workers’ comp rules and exceptions on your own. Our personal injury law firm has spent more than 40 years sorting out exactly which path fits a case like yours, working from our San Bernardino office throughout Riverside and the rest of Southern California. We review workplace injury cases throughout San Bernardino at no cost to you. Call 909-890-1000 or fill out our confidential contact form to schedule a free consultation.

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn
By William D. Shapiro Law, Inc. | Posted on September 12, 2026