(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Supreme Court today (Friday) ruled the families of four employees of the Tyson meatpacking plant in Waterloo who allegedly died after contracting COVID-19 at the plant can continue a lawsuit. The Supreme Court ruling says families cannot sue the company itself, but can sue a Tyson executive and supervisors.

The ruling says there are sufficient facts that those company officials recklessly disregarded a substantial and unnecessary risk that the workers would be exposed to COVID-19 if they kept working. Court information says the Tyson plant in was the largest in the U-S with three-thousand workers.

The Supreme Court ruling reverses a district court ruling that said Iowa’s Workers’ Compensation Act was the only remedy for the estates of the four to make claims, and it dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction.