1997 -NMCA- 72, Espinosa v. Albuquerque Pub. Co., s. 16701

• Decision Date: 20 June 1997
• Docket Number: 16929,Nos. 16701,s. 16701
• Citation: 1997 NMCA 72,943 P.2d 1058,123 N.M. 605
• Parties: , 1997 -NMCA- 72 Larry M.P. ESPINOSA, Worker-Appellant, v. ALBUQUERQUE PUBLISHING COMPANY, and Mountain States Mutual Casualty Company, Employer/Insurer-Appellees. Larry M.P. ESPINOSA, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. ALBUQUERQUE PUBLISHING COMPANY, a partnership owned and operated by the Journal Publishing Company, and Glen Forbus, as agent for Albuquerque Publishing Company and as an individual, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: Court of Appeals of New Mexico

Page 1058

943 P.2d 1058

123 N.M. 605, 1997 -NMCA- 72

Larry M.P. ESPINOSA, Worker-Appellant, v. ALBUQUERQUE PUBLISHING COMPANY, and Mountain States Mutual

Casualty Company, Employer/Insurer-Appellees.

Larry M.P. ESPINOSA, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. ALBUQUERQUE PUBLISHING COMPANY, a partnership owned and operated by the Journal Publishing Company, and Glen Forbus,

as agent for Albuquerque Publishing Company and as an

individual, Defendants-Appellees.

Nos. 16701, 16929.

Court of Appeals of New Mexico.

June 20, 1997.

Certiorari Granted Aug. 6, 1997.

[123 N.M. 606] Elizabeth Gabriel, Albuquerque, for Appellant.

Mark J. Riley, Deborah S. Dungan, Padilla, Riley & Shane, P.A., Albuquerque, for Appellees.

OPINION

ARMIJO, Judge.

¶1 On October 22, 1991, Larry Espinosa was struck by a vehicle as he walked across an Albuquerque, New Mexico, street while in a designated crosswalk. The vehicle that struck Espinosa was owned by Albuquerque Publishing Company (the Company), and its driver was returning to his place of work after a "mail run." It is undisputed that the accident was caused solely by the negligence of the driver. The accident occurred some two miles from the Albuquerque Publishing Company offices. When the accident occurred, Espinosa was walking to work; his shift was to begin some thirty minutes later. He, too, worked for the Company.

¶2 These consolidated appeals involve a question of statutory interpretation. We are asked to construe the exclusivity provisions in the Workers' Compensation Act (WCA), and the statutory definition of the course of employment, to determine whether the WCA provides the exclusive remedy for a worker who is injured on his way to work, in a traffic accident that occurred approximately half an hour before his shift began, approximately two miles away from his employer's premises, and as a direct result of an on-duty co-worker's negligent driving of a vehicle owned by the common employer.

¶3 We affirm the rulings of the district court and the workers' compensation judge (WCJ) and hold that Espinosa may not pursue a tort claim in district court to recover damages for the injuries he sustained in this accident because the WCA provides the exclusive remedy for Espinosa's injuries in this accident.

I. PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

¶4 In October of 1992, Espinosa filed a claim with the Workers' Compensation Administration to determine whether the injuries he sustained in this accident made him eligible for benefits under the WCA. NMSA 1978, §§ 52-1-1 to -70 (Repl.Pamp.1991 & Cum.Supp.1996). Espinosa filed a motion for summary judgment seeking a declaration that his accident was not covered by the WCA. The WCJ held a formal hearing on the matter and subsequently entered a summary judgment denying Espinosa's motion and holding instead that Espinosa was bound by the exclusive remedies of the WCA. We initially dismissed Espinosa's appeal from the WCJ's summary judgment order because this order was not final. Espinosa subsequently appealed from the WCJ's entry of a compensation order disposing of all issues in the workers' compensation proceeding.

¶5 Espinosa filed a tort claim against the Company in district court in October of 1994. The Company filed a motion for summary judgment in which it claimed that Espinosa's tort claim was barred by the exclusivity provisions in Section 52-1-9 of the WCA. The district court agreed and entered summary judgment in the Company's favor, finding that the exclusivity provisions in Section 52-1-9 apply to Espinosa because "he was on his way to work and is subject to the [going-and-coming] rule because of the employers [sic] negligence." Espinosa appealed from the district court's order granting summary judgment. This Court granted Espinosa's motion to consolidate the appeals from the district court's entry of summary judgment and the WCJ's compensation order. Both appeals have been consolidated for purposes of our review.

II. DISCUSSION

¶6 Espinosa wishes to pursue a tort claim in district court against the Company to recover damages for the injuries he sustained in the accident, while the Company maintains that Espinosa is limited to the relief afforded him under the WCA. Resolving this dispute turns on the purpose and effect of the exclusivity provisions contained in Section 52-1-9 of the WCA and the definition of "injury by accident arising out of and in the course of employment" in Section 52-1-19 of the WCA. The issue was preserved below.

A. Standard of Review

¶7 The interpretation of Sections 52-1-9 and -19 of the WCA is a question of law that does not require us to defer to the statutory interpretation of the district court or the WCJ. See Cox v. Municipal Boundary Comm'n, 120 N.M. 703, 705, 905 P.2d 741, 743 (Ct.App.), cert. denied, 120 N.M. 636, 904 P.2d 1061 (1995). Generally, this Court interprets statutory provisions with the primary goal of determining and giving effect to the intent of the legislature. See Junge v. John D. Morgan Constr. Co., 118 N.M. 457, 463, 882 P.2d 48, 54 (Ct.App.1994). While we do not believe that the legislature intended the result achieved in the circumstances of this case, we conclude that we must follow our Supreme Court's prior interpretations of the WCA even though the result may be inequitable and contrary to the intent of the WCA's drafters. See State v. Wilson, 116 N.M. 793, 795-96, 867 P.2d 1175, 1177-78 (1994) (Court of Appeals is bound to follow recent precedent of Supreme Court but is encouraged to express its rationale for any reservations about doing so); cf. In re Eastburn, 121 N.M. 531, 538, 914 P.2d 1028, 1035 (1996) (noting that judges who "set themselves above the law, to promote a personal belief about what the law should be, do a disservice to justice"). The applicable precedents of our Supreme Court compel us to affirm the rulings of the district court and the WCJ in this case.

B. The Going-and-Coming Rule

8) Section 52-1-9 of the WCA states:

The right to the compensation provided for in this act ... in lieu of any other liability whatsoever, to any and all persons whomsoever, for any personal injury accidentally sustained or death resulting therefrom, shall obtain in all cases where the following conditions occur:

A. at the time of the accident, the employer has complied with the provisions thereof regarding insurance B. at the time of the accident, the employee is performing service arising out of and in the course of his employment; and

C. the injury or death is proximately caused by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment and is not intentionally self-inflicted.

Section 52-1-19 defines the phrase "injury by accident arising out of and in the course of employment" as used in the WCA as follows:

unless the context otherwise requires, "injury by accident arising out of and in the course of employment" shall include accidental injuries to workers and death resulting from accidental injury as a result of their employment and while at work in any place where their employer's business requires their presence but shall not include injuries to any worker occurring while on his way to assume the duties of his employment or after leaving such duties, the proximate cause of which is not the employer's negligence.

In this case, the question is whether the injuries resulting from Espinosa's accident fall under the WCA's definition of "injuries to any worker occurring while on his way to assume the duties of his employment or after leaving such duties, the proximate cause of which is not the employer's negligence." Section 52-1-19.

¶8 Our Supreme Court has construed Section 52-1-19 as incorporating a general principle of workers' compensation law known as "the going-and-coming rule." See Dupper v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 105 N.M. 503, 506, 734 P.2d 743, 746 (1987). This rule arises from the recognition that, "while admittedly the employment is the cause of the workman's journey between his home and the factory, it is generally taken for granted that workmen's compensation was not intended to protect him against all the perils of that journey." 1 Arthur Larson & Lex K. Larson, The Law of Workmen's Compensation § 15.11 (1996). Professor Larson describes the going-and-coming rule as a "compromise [that] has been arrived at, largely by case law, with a surprising degree of unanimity: for an employee having fixed hours and place of work, going to and from work is covered on the employer's premises." Id. (footnotes omitted). Off-premises injuries sustained while going to or from work are not covered under the WCA unless they fit within one of several specific exceptions to the going-and-coming rule. See generally 1 Larson, supra § 15 (discussing these exceptions).

¶9 As the district court acknowledged, New Mexico has a "peculiar" statutory version of the going-and-coming rule that appears to base its coverage for injuries sustained while going to and from work on the employer's negligence rather than the fact that the injury occurred on the employer's premises. See § 52-1-19. While recognizing the "peculiarity" of requiring proof of negligence when "[t]he idea of negligence as an essential to recovery is generally foreign to the theory of workmen's compensation[,]" Cuellar v. American Employers' Ins. Co., 36 N.M. 141, 143, 9 P.2d 685, 686 (1932), the New Mexico Supreme Court originally interpreted New Mexico's statutory version of the going-and-coming rule to require proof of the employer's negligence in order to obtain coverage for a worker who was injured while going from work even though the worker remained on the employer's premises. Id. at 145, 9 P.2d at 687.

¶10 However, prior case law interpreting New Mexico's going-and-coming rule in this manner was overruled by the New Mexico Supreme Court in 1987, when New Mexico joined its sister states in extending workers' compensation coverage to injuries sustained while going to and from work on the employer's premises without...