Lockheed-Martin employees and relatives of victims who died or suffered injuries during a 2003 a shooting spree by an employee cannot take their claims outside of Mississippi's workers' compensation system because of exclusive remedy, the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled.

The court affirmed an earlier summary judgment to dismiss claims by 27 workers in Bailey et. al. v. Lockheed Martin Corp. et. al., No. 07-60399, 1/17/08, saying it was barred by the Mississippi State Workers' Compensation Law's exclusive remedy provision. The court cited its similar decision in Tanks v. Lockheed Martin Corp. et. al., which also arose from the same incident.

The claimants filed their claims after Douglas Williams, an assemblyman at Lockheed's Lauderdale County plant, shot 14 employees, and eventually killed himself in July 2003. The court determined that the Tanks case was "factually and legally indistinguishable from the case here, and therefore, the case merited a similar decision.

The appellate court granted summary judgment to Lockheed based on the exclusive remedy provision. Earlier in the legal process, the District Court ruled that Tanks and the claimants could proceed with the case, but the appellate court reversed and remanded that decision upon Lockheed's appeal.