Court rules workers’ comp shields employer who sent worker to his death

Matthew Heiden was 20 years old when the Village of Westmont dispatched him and two colleagues to repair a leaking valve inside an underground water vault in February 2023. The vault was a classified confined space under Illinois safety law – the kind of environment that requires permits, trained attendants, protective equipment, and a work plan before anyone sets foot inside. 

According to the complaint, Matthew was the most junior employee on the crew and the only one sent down into the vault. He went in without a harness, without a retrieval line, and without any protective equipment. The water main was still running. 

While he was underground, a valve gave way. His arm became trapped in the pipe as water flooded the space. The colleague left on the surface had no communication equipment and had to flag down passing police officers to call for help. A second colleague had already left the scene entirely. Rescuers worked for at least 47 minutes before Matthew was pulled from the vault. He was pronounced dead at a local trauma center. 

What made the case impossible to ignore was what had already been on the record. The Department of Labor had cited the Village in November 2021 for failing to train workers on confined space entry – violations the agency described as exposing employees to immediate, life-threatening hazards. The Village was cited again in January 2022 for failing to fix the same problems. The last confined space work permit the Village had on file was from 2017. And yet, in February 2023, Matthew Heiden went into that vault. 

His mother, Laurie Heiden, became administrator of his estate and filed suit. The Village pushed back, arguing that workers’ compensation law barred the claims entirely. Under that system, employees who are injured on the job generally cannot sue their employers directly – they receive workers’ comp benefits instead. The Village said this case was no different.