Barber v. La. Workforce Comm'n
| Decision Date | 19 October 2018 |
| Docket Number | NUMBER 2017 CA 0844 |
| Citation | 266 So.3d 368 |
| Parties | Janice Hebert BARBER, John H. Fairbanks, M.D., Pierce D. Nunley, M.D., John Logan, M.D., John Faulkner, Darrell Cormier, Peggy Edwards, Joan Savoy, Karin Frierson, and Vanessa Arnold v. LOUISIANA WORKFORCE COMMISSION, Louisiana Office of Workers' Compensation, Christopher Rich, M.D., Wes Hataway, and Curt Eysink |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US |
J. Arthur Smith, III Baton Rouge, LA and Chris Shows Baton Rouge, LA, Counsel for Plaintiffs/Appellees Janice Hebert Barber, Jennifer Barber Valois, John H. Fairbanks, M.D., Pierce D. Nunley, M.D., John Logan, M.D., John Faulkner, Darrell Cormier, Peggy Edwards, Joan Savoy, Karin Frierson, and Vanessa Arnold
Harry J. Philips, Jr.Erin S. Kenny Baton Rouge, LA and Meridith J. Trahant Baton Rouge, LA, Counsel for Defendants/Appellants Louisiana Workforce Commission, Louisiana Office of Workers' Compensation, Christopher Rich, M.D., Wes Hataway, and Curt Eysink
Michael R. Fontham New Orleans, LA and H. Alston Johnson, III Baton Rouge, LA, Counsel for Amicus Curiae Louisiana Homebuilders Assoc. Self-Insurers' Fund, et al
BEFORE: GUIDRY, PETTIGREW, AND CRAIN, JJ.
Defendants, Louisiana Workforce Commission, the Louisiana Office of Workers' Compensation Administration (OWC), Christopher Rich, M.D., Wes Hataway, and Curt Eysink, appeal from a judgment permanently enjoining, restraining, and prohibiting them from applying and/or enforcing certain statutory provisions and regulations regarding the medical treatment schedule authorization and dispute resolution procedures. For the reasons that follow, we affirm in part and reverse in part.
In 2009, the Louisiana Legislature enacted La. R.S. 23:1203.1, which completely revised the workers' compensation system for injured workers to obtain medical treatment. The revision was a product of the combined endeavor by employers, insurers, labor, and medical providers to establish meaningful guidelines for the treatment of injured workers. Church Mutual Insurance Company v. Dardar, 13-2351, p. 5 (La. 5/7/14), 145 So.3d 271, 275.
As such, medical care, services, and treatment due pursuant to La. R.S. 23:1203.1 by the employer to the employee are now governed by a medical treatment schedule. La. R.S. 23:1203.1(1). Louisiana Revised Statute 23:1203.1(B) instructs the Director of the OWC (Director) to "promulgate rules in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act, R.S. 49:950 et seq., to establish a medical treatment schedule." To this end, the Director is tasked with appointing a medical advisory council, to be comprised of a medical director and at least one representative from eight enumerated areas of medical practice. La. R.S. 23:1203.1(F). The council, with the assistance of the medical director, is directed to develop guidelines to be established and promulgated as the medical treatment schedule. La. R.S. 23:1203.1(E) and (G). These guidelines must meet specific criteria outlined in the statute. La. R.S. 23:1203.1(E) and (G)(1). Once the medical treatment schedule is promulgated, the Director and the medical advisory council are charged with reviewing and updating the schedule no less often than once every two years. La. R.S. 23:1203.1(H).
Church Mutual Insurance Company, 13-2351 at p. 6, 145 So.3d at 276-277.
The medical treatment schedule was subsequently promulgated and became effective in June 2011. See LR 37:1631; LAC 40:I.2001, et seq.
Thereafter, on April 29, 2013, plaintiffs, consisting of injured workers, attorneys practicing in the area of workers' compensation, and physicians who treat injured workers, filed a petition for declaratory and injunctive relief challenging the constitutionality of certain provisions of La. R.S. 23:1203.1 and its implementing regulations found at LAC 40:I.2715, La. R.S. 23:1314(E), and certain provisions of La. R.S. 23:1020.1. Defendants responded by filing exceptions raising the objections of no cause of action, no right of action, prematurity, and vagueness or ambiguity. Particularly, with regard to their exception raising the objection of no right of action, the defendants asserted that plaintiffs, Janice Hebert Barber, Jennifer Barber Valois, John H. Fairbanks, M.D., John H. Logan, M.D., and Pierce D. Nunley, M.D., failed to allege that their own constitutional rights had been affected as a result of the challenged statutes and regulations.1
Plaintiffs subsequently filed a motion for preliminary injunction, which was set for hearing. Pamela Vicknair, an injured worker, filed a petition of intervention, adopting the petition for declaratory judgment and injunctive relief, motion for preliminary injunction, and memoranda filed by the plaintiffs, which the trial court granted. Following a hearing on the preliminary injunction request, wherein the trial court also took up defendants' exceptions, the trial court issued a ruling on June 24, 2015, sustaining the defendants' exception raising the objection of no cause of action as to Janice Hebert Barber, Jennifer Barber Valois, John H. Fairbanks, M.D., John H. Logan, M.D., and Pierce D. Nunley, M.D., finding that they lacked standing to challenge the constitutionality of the statutes and regulations at issue. The trial court further expressed the opinion that: LAC 40:I.2715(E)(1)(e)(2)(a) and LAC 40:I.2715(H) are unconstitutional as violative of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Louisiana Constitution Article I, Section 2 ; LAC 40:I.2715(L) is unconstitutionally vague and violates the Due Process Clauses of the Federal and State Constitutions; the statutory and administrative system is unconstitutional as the system violates both substantive and procedural due process; and the workers' compensation system implemented by the OWC unconstitutionally violates the separation of powers doctrine.
Thereafter, the trial court signed a judgment sustaining the defendants' exception of no right of action as to Janice Hebert Barber, Jennifer Barber Valois, John H. Fairbanks, M.D., John H. Logan, M.D., and Pierce D. Nunley, M.D., and dismissed their claims. The trial court, however, overruled the exception as to the remaining plaintiffs. The trial court also found that the remaining plaintiffs had made a prima facie showing that they are entitled to the relief sought as a matter of law and that they will likely prevail on the merits of the case. As such, the trial court granted plaintiffs' motion for preliminary injunction and ordered that the defendants be enjoined from applying and/or enforcing LAC 40:I.2715(E)(2) ; LAC 40:I.2715(H) ; and LAC 40:I.2715(L). The trial court also ordered that the defendants be enjoined from applying and/or enforcing statutes and regulations, which establish the system for the administrative determinations of Form 1009 claims for medical benefits for injured workers by a medical director employed by the OWC of the Louisiana Workforce Commission and administrative appeals therefrom to OWC judges, including: La. R.S. 23:1203.1(J)(1), (K), and (M) ; La. R.S. 23:1314(D) and (E)(1), inclusive; LAC 40:I.2715(B)(3)(d), (e), and (f) ; and LAC 40:I.2715(E)(2), (F), (H), (I), (J), (K), and (L).
Defendants filed a motion for suspensive appeal to the Louisiana Supreme Court, invoking the supreme court's appellate jurisdiction pursuant to La. Const. art. V, § 5 (D) on the ground that the trial court declared certain provisions of the medical treatment schedule contained in the Louisiana Workers' Compensation Act to be unconstitutional. In Barber v. Louisiana Workforce Commission, 15-1700, p. 1 (La. 10/9/15), 176 So.3d 398, 398 (Barber I), the supreme court found the constitutional issue was not properly raised in the trial court, since a court may not declare a statute unconstitutional in the context of a summary proceeding such as a preliminary injunction hearing. Furthermore, the court noted that although the trial court's ruling, which was purportedly incorporated by reference in the judgment, discusses unconstitutionality, the judgment itself does not contain any formal declaration of unconstitutionality. Barber I, 15-1700 at p. 2 n.1, 176 So.3d at 399 n.1. Accordingly, because it lacked appellate jurisdiction over the case, the supreme court transferred the appeal to this court for review of the judgment granting the preliminary injunction. Barber I, 15-1700 at p. 2, 176 So.3d at 399.
On appeal, this court reversed the portion of the trial court's judgment granting a preliminary injunction in favor of plaintiffs, finding that because plaintiffs did not seek to maintain the status quo but rather, sought a change in the workers' compensation system, a preliminary injunction was not appropriate. However, this court affirmed the portion of the trial court's judgment sustaining defendants' exception raising the objection of no right of action as to Janice Hebert Barber, Jennifer Barber Valois, John H. Fairbanks, M.D., John H. Logan, M.D., and Pierce D. Nunley, M.D., finding that these lawyer and doctor plaintiffs lacked standing to challenge the constitutionality of the subject statutes and regulations and remanded the matter to the trial court for a trial on the merits of the remaining plaintiffs' request for a permanent injunction and declaratory judgment. Barber v. Louisiana Workforce Commission, 15-1598, p. 8 and 11 (La. App. 1st Cir. 6/2/16) (unpublished opinion) ( Barber II ).
At the trial on the merits of plaintiffs' request for a permanent injunction and declaratory judgment, the parties admitted into evidence the testimony and evidence from the preliminary injunction as well as the testimony of Michelle Keller, the current Director of OWC. Following the trial, the trial court signed a judgment on March 2, 2017, permanently enjoining, restraining, and prohibiting defendants from applying and/or enforcing 40 LAC § 2715(E)(2), 40 LAC § 2715(H), 40 LAC § 2715(L), and the...
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