This article originally appeared as a Gavel to Gavel guest column in the Journal Record on October 30, 2025.
By Phillips Murrrah, attorney Colby D. Karcher
Colby D. Karcher – Click to visit profile.
When a workplace fatality occurs, employers face both human loss and complex legal responsibilities. For companies operating in Oklahoma and Texas, the difference in workers’ compensation statutory beneficiaries can directly affect liability exposure. Although the two states share a border, their workers’ compensation statutes extend benefits to surviving relatives in very different ways—especially when it comes to an adult, unmarried, and childless worker.
Oklahoma
The general rule in Oklahoma is that an employer’s liability for an employee’s injury does not extend beyond the employee’s exclusive remedy of the Workers’ Compensation Court. Though long-standing exceptions to the exclusive remedy rule are recognized, such as intentional or willful conduct of the employer leading to the employee’s death, a relatively new exception was crafted by the Oklahoma Supreme Court through Whipple v. Phillips & Sons Trucking, LLC, 2020 OK 75, 474 P.3d 339. In Whipple, the Court recognized that the parent of an adult, unmarried, and childless decedent may bring a wrongful death action in district court, despite the prospective availability of Workers’ Compensation benefits to the decedent for workplace injury, because the Oklahoma legislature’s attempt to limit recovery for death benefits to spouses, children, or legal guardians dependent on the decedent was unconstitutional.
Texas
Texas also recognizes an exception to the exclusivity of the Workers’ Compensation Court for intentional or willful conduct of an employer leading to an employee’s death. But unlike Oklahoma, Texas explicitly allows a surviving parent of the decedent to receive death benefits from the Workers’ Compensation system. Thus, the Texas legislature has not attempted to statutorily limit death benefits to spouses, children, or legal guardians dependent on the decedent.
Practical takeaway for employers
For companies that employ workers across both Oklahoma and Texas, understanding these jurisdictional differences is essential. A workplace death governed by Oklahoma law, where the decedent is an adult, unmarried, and childless, may lead to larger exposure for a wrongful death lawsuit in district court, bringing into play damages such as medical and funeral expenses, loss of income, loss of consortium, pain and suffering, and punitive damages. However, the same tragedy governed by Texas law may be restricted to workers’ compensation benefits, serving to negate broader risk exposure.
Attempting to navigate these complexities without the support of a qualified, experienced legal advisor increases the challenging nature of these types of situations. Assistance with compensation compliance, defense, and risk evaluation across Oklahoma and Texas, and assistance with understanding multi-state operations, will help businesses understand and work through these differences with confidence.
About the author:
Colby D. Karcher is a litigation attorney who represents individuals and both privately held and public companies in a wide range of civil litigation matters.
CONTACT: ckarcher@phillipsmurrah.com | 405.552.2408
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