Boucher v. McGovern, 93-98-M

• Decision Date: 12 April 1994
• Docket Number: No. 93-98-M,93-98-M
• Parties: Ronald BOUCHER v. Ronald E. McGOVERN and Consolidated Concrete Corp. v. JoAnn CRECELIUS. P.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

Page 1369

639 A.2d 1369

Ronald BOUCHER v. Ronald E. McGOVERN and Consolidated Concrete Corp. v. JoAnn CRECELIUS.

No. 93-98-M.P.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

April 12, 1994.

Donald J. Maroney, Kelly, Kelleher, Reilly & Simpson, Providence, for third party plaintiff.

Robert J. Dumouchel, Joseph W. Baglini, Higgins & Slattery, Providence, for third party defendant.

OPINION

MURRAY, Justice.

This matter came before this court on the petition for certiorari of the third-party defendant, JoAnn Crecelius (Crecelius). Crecelius seeks our review of a Superior Court justice's denial of her motion for summary judgment. We quash the motion justice's ruling. The facts required to examine the ruling denying summary judgment are set forth below.

This lawsuit arose out of a two-vehicle collision in Seekonk, Massachusetts, on April 10, 1987. On that day Crecelius was operating a Brink's, Inc. (Brink's), armored truck, and plaintiff, Ronald Boucher (Boucher), was a passenger in that truck. Both Boucher and Crecelius were employees of Brink's, and they were driving from Newport, Rhode Island to Ann & Hope in Seekonk. The Brink's truck collided with a cement truck that defendant/third-party plaintiff Ronald E. McGovern (McGovern) was operating, which vehicle defendant/third-party plaintiff Consolidated Concrete Corp. (Consolidated) owned.

As a result of the accident, both Boucher and Crecelius suffered injuries and collected workers' compensation benefits. In 1990 Boucher filed a complaint against McGovern and Consolidated, alleging that their negligence had caused the collision. He sought compensatory damages, interest, and the costs of suit. McGovern and Consolidated subsequently filed a third-party complaint against Crecelius in which they denied all claims of negligence on their part and alleged that the collision had resulted from the sole or joint negligence of Crecelius. They sought "indemnification or contribution as shall be just." Crecelius later filed a motion for summary judgment pursuant to Rule 56 of the Superior Court Rules of Civil Procedure. She claimed that because she was Boucher's coemployee, Boucher lacked a common-law right of action for damages against her pursuant to G.L.1956 (1986 Reenactment) § 28-29-20 and that, therefore, she could not be held liable to a third party seeking indemnification or contribution vicariously through Boucher.

The motion justice first heard arguments on Crecelius's motion for summary judgment, to which McGovern and Consolidated objected, on March 10, 1992. On June 24, 1992, the motion justice denied the motion.

At that hearing the motion justice discussed the two sections of the Workers' Compensation Act (WCA) that are most relevant to this case. Section 28-29-20 provides,

"The right to compensation for an injury under chapters 29--38, inclusive, of this title, and the remedy therefor granted by those chapters, shall be in lieu of all rights and remedies as to that injury now existing, either at common law or otherwise against an employer, or its directors, officers, agents or employees; and those rights and remedies shall not accrue to employees entitled to compensation under those chapters while they are in effect, except as otherwise provided in §§ 28-36-10 and 28-36-15."

Section 28-35-58 relates to the liability of a third party for damages and states in pertinent part:

"Where the injury for which compensation is payable under chapters 29-38, inclusive, of this title, was caused under circumstances creating a legal liability in some person other than the employer to pay damages in respect thereof, the employee may take proceedings, both against that person to recover damages and against any person liable to pay compensation under those chapters for that compensation, and the employee shall be entitled to receive both damages and compensation; Provided, That the employee, in recovering damages either by judgment or settlement from the person so liable to pay damages, shall reimburse the person by whom the compensation was paid to the extent of the compensation paid as of the date of the judgment or settlement and the receipt of those damages by the employee shall not bar future compensation * * * ."

This section also provides that if the employee has been paid workers' compensation benefits, the person who paid the compensation "shall be entitled to indemnity from the person so liable to pay damages as aforesaid, and to the extent of that indemnity shall be subrogated to the rights of the employee to recover damages therefor[.]" See id.

The motion justice explained that the two provisions must be read together in the context of the public policy behind the WCA. In her view, the policy behind the WCA was the expeditious disposition of claims by workers injured in the course of their employment. She also stated,

"The policy is not to extend immunity from suit to every officer, agent, director, or employee of an employer who may have their own personal legal liability for the injury apart from the liability attaching to the employer for the acts of that director, officer, agent, or employee."

The motion justice then framed the question as "where the officer, director, agent, or employee is from his or her own conduct directly and individually liable to the injured employee separate and apart from the common law liability imposed on an employer as a result of the actions of its agent, officer, director, or employee, does [s] 28-29-20 and the statutory scheme including [s] 28-35-58 offer immunity from suit?" She concluded that § 28-29-20 in the context of the entire statutory scheme does not immunize employees, directors, officers, or agents "where they are individually legally liable" but does immunize them when they are sued to impute liability to the employer. She stated that the court would "not construe this exclusivity o[f] remedy or so-called immunity to extend well beyond what is necessary to accomplish the public policy and the purpose of the [WCA]." She noted that

"[t]o construe the Workers' Compensation Act[,] in particular, [s] 28-29-20, so as to extend this exclusivity or immunity as far as [ ] third-party defendant Crecelius would have it would be unfair, would be [ ] violative of public policy, and would be irrational. [Section] 28-29-20 limits the rights of an injured worker to proceedings under Chapters 29 through 38 of the Act. The rights the employee gets under the Act are in lieu of any other rights against the employer, whether directly against the employer or imputed to the employer through the conduct of an officer, director, agent, or employee of that employer. [Section] 2-35-58 anticipates that the employee would have a right of action against any other legally liable person other than the employer. The employee has a right of action against all but the employer. This includes directors, officers, agents, and employees to the extent that they are legally liable directly to the employee and are not sued for [the] purpose of imputing [ ] liability to the employer. The right of contribution is derivative; therefore, the employee has the right of action against this Third-Party Defendant we will call the employee and the defendant."

In her petition for issuance of a writ of certiorari, Crecelius claims that the motion justice's decision contradicted the plain language of § 28-29-20 and disregarded well-settled case law, including DiQuinzio v. Panciera Lease Co., 612 A.2d 40 (R.I.1992), and Cacchillo v. H. Leach Machinery Co., 111 R.I. 593, 305 A.2d 541 (1973). Crecelius also argues that the motion justice erred by failing to follow the clear language of § 28-29-20 and this court's holdings that have construed that statutory provision. She claims that the plain language of that section bars an injured worker who is receiving workers' compensation benefits from bringing any civil action at common law or otherwise against an employer or the employer's employees, directors, officers, or agents. Since she is immune from liability to her coemployee Boucher, she contends, she cannot be liable to a third party seeking contribution or indemnification through Boucher. She emphasizes the fact that the General Assembly amended the statutory provision in 1982 to extend immunity to coemployees. She argues that although McGovern and Consolidated seek indemnification from her, she has no written contract of indemnity with them, and they have not established equitable indemnity. She also maintains that this court has interpreted § 28-29-20 to extend immunity to cover claims based on the employee's "wrongful conduct," not simply to apply to situations in which the conduct is imputed to the employer.

McGovern and Consolidated assert several arguments. They claim that (1) § 28-29-20 is violative of article 1, section 5, of the Rhode Island Constitution, (2) the motion justice did not commit reversible error as she properly construed §§ 28-29-20 and 28-35-58, (3) § 28-29-20 violates the Equal-Protection and Due-Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, (4) the motion justice did not commit reversible error as they are entitled to indemnification, (5) the employee's election to be covered under the WCA is a release according to G.L.1956 (1985 Reenactment) § 10-6-7, thereby diminishing Boucher's claim against them by the amount of consideration paid, and (6) Crecelius is liable to them for contribution.

The scope of our review on a writ of certiorari is restricted to an examination of the record that extends only to questions of law raised in the petition. Picerne v. DiPrete, 542 A.2d 1101, 1104 (R.I.1988). We reverse only when we find pursuant to the petition that the lower-court judge committed an error of law. Wellington Hotel Associates v. Miner, 543 A.2d 656, 660 (R.I.1988). Crecelius sought and we granted a writ of certiorari to review the motion justice's denial of her motion for summary judgment.

At the outset...