Can a former employee claim for defamatory statements made by an employer after termination be excluded from a workers' compensation exclusion?

Here Cade-Grayson relies on the temporal element-the three-month interval between termination and defamation-to take this claim out of the exclusion. It cites Davaris v. Cubaleski, 12 Cal.App.4th 1583, 16 Cal.Rptr.2d 330 (1993), in support. Davaris held that a former employee's claim for a defamatory statement made by the employer after termination was not barred by the exclusivity provision of the workers' compensation law. However, neither the passage of time alone nor the pre- and post-termination distinction is a satisfactory basis upon which to make the exclusion determination. It is entirely possible that post-termination, injury-causing acts or omissions, even months after termination, could arise directly and proximately from the termination or be so related.