DES MOINES, IOWA — A recent ruling from the Iowa Supreme Court allows the family of Tyson Foods workers who died from COVID-19 to sue company executives and supervisors for gross negligence.

On May 23, the court reversed a decision of a district court that had dismissed claims against all 14 defendants in the Tyson Foods death suits, including corporate, executive and supervisor defendants. However, the dismissal of claims against Tyson Foods Inc. and Tyson Fresh Meats Inc. was affirmed by the Iowa Supreme Court.

In its ruling, the supreme court wrote that the plaintiffs demonstrated a sufficient argument for alleged gross negligence from Tyson Foods officials. To establish a gross negligence claim, three elements are necessary, according to the court: knowledge of the peril to be apprehended; knowledge that injury is a probable, as opposed to a possible, result of the danger; and a conscious failure to avoid the peril.

Following the death of four of Tyson Foods’ Waterloo, Iowa, employees who contracted COVID-19, several individuals filed suit against the company and its officials for gross negligence and fraud.

The families wrote in their complaint that, while Tyson’s corporate employees were told to work remotely following the national emergency declaration due to the COVID-19 risk, the Waterloo pork processing plant remained operating at full capacity.

Other allegations against Tyson included disregarding contact tracing required by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), keeping sick workers on the line and lying to employees about the risk of COVID-19 within the plant.

By the end of the pandemic, the Waterloo plant was one of the largest reported COVID-19 outbreaks in a workplace, with 1,000 employees testing positive and at least five deaths, according to the complaint.