## Facts

- Fifteen-year-old Joshua Henderson died by electrocution while working for Bear’s Car Wash & Detail Center.
- Joshua’s parents received workers’ compensation benefits, including a funeral benefit and medical-expense reimbursement; they raised dependency benefits administratively but were not awarded them.
- The parents filed a civil action against the employer alleging wrongful death, violations of the Colorado Youth Employment Opportunity Act, violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and extreme and outrageous conduct.
- The employer moved to dismiss and for summary judgment, asserting workers’ compensation exclusivity and lack of private causes of action under the Youth Act and FLSA.
- The trial court dismissed the claims under C.R.C.P. 12(b)(5); the parties agreed to dismiss the wrongful-death claims.
- The trial court awarded $4,000 in attorney fees against the parents’ counsel under Colorado fee-shifting statutes tied to tort actions dismissed under Rule 12(b) and actions lacking substantial justification.
- The parents appealed the dismissal and the attorney-fee award.

## Issues

1. Whether the Colorado Youth Employment Opportunity Act or the FLSA provides a private cause of action that permits parents to recover civil damages from an employer for a minor employee’s work-related death notwithstanding the exclusivity provisions of the Colorado Workers’ Compensation Act.
2. Whether the appellate court had jurisdiction to review an attorney-fee award assessed against plaintiffs’ counsel when no separate final judgment on fees had entered.

## Decision

- The judgment dismissing the complaint was affirmed.
- The court held that the Workers’ Compensation Act provided the exclusive remedy for claims based on the minor’s work-related death.
- The court declined to recognize an implied private civil damages remedy under the Youth Act that would circumvent workers’ compensation exclusivity.
- The court rejected the parents’ attempt to use the FLSA as a basis for a tort-like damages action for wrongful death outside the workers’ compensation system.
- The extreme and outrageous conduct claim was barred because it sought damages derived from a covered work-related death.
- The portion of the appeal challenging the attorney-fee award was dismissed for lack of appellate jurisdiction, and the matter was remanded for further proceedings regarding fees.

## Legal Principles

- When an employer complies with the Colorado Workers’ Compensation Act, the Act supplies an exclusive remedy for employee injuries and deaths arising out of and in the course of employment, barring other civil liability for the same harm.
- A court will not imply a private damages remedy under a statute absent legislative intent shown by the statute’s text and structure; administrative enforcement and penal provisions weigh against implying a civil cause of action.
- The Youth Employment Opportunity Act does not create an implied private civil damages action allowing parents to bypass workers’ compensation exclusivity for a minor’s covered workplace injury or death.
- The FLSA’s remedial scheme does not support a state-law wrongful-death damages action against an employer that displaces workers’ compensation exclusivity for covered injuries.
- An attorney-fee award assessed against counsel individually generally requires a separate final judgment before it is appealable; without such finality, the appellate court lacks jurisdiction.

## Conclusion

The court held that the parents’ civil claims based on their minor child’s on-the-job death were barred by the exclusive-remedy provisions of Colorado’s Workers’ Compensation Act and that neither the Youth Act nor the FLSA supplied an implied private damages action to avoid that bar; it also dismissed the fee appeal for lack of a separate final judgment and remanded on the fee issue.


Henderson v. Bear, 968 P.2d 144 (Colo. App. 1998)