Busby v. Perini Corp.

• Decision Date: 24 April 1972
• Docket Number: No. 1551-A,1551-A
• Citation: 290 A.2d 210,110 R.I. 49
• Parties: Jessie K. BUSBY v. PERINI CORPORATION v. OWEN J. McGARRAHAN CO. ppeal.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

Page 210

290 A.2d 210

110 R.I. 49

Jessie K. BUSBY v. PERINI CORPORATION v. OWEN J. McGARRAHAN CO.

No. 1551-Appeal.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

April 24, 1972.

[110 R.I. 54] Milton Bernstein, Providence, for plaintiff.

Hinckley, Allen, Salisbury & Parsons, Thomas J. Hogan, Thomas D. Gidley, Michael

P. DeFanti, Providence, for Perini Corp.

Higgins, Cavanagh & Cooney, Kenneth P. Borden, Providence, for Owen J. McGarrahan Co.

OPINION

JOSLIN, Justice.

This is a torts conflicts case. In a civil action commenced in the Superior Court, Jessie K. Busby, an employee of the Owen J. McGarrahan Company, seeks damages from Perini Corporation for personal injuries suffered as a result of Perini's alleged negligence. Perini is a general contractor who was engaged to construct the Newport Bridge; McGarrahan was a subcontractor on that job; Busby is a resident of Massachusetts; both McGarrahan and Perini are Massachusetts corporations; and Busby's employment contract with McGarrahan was executed in that state as was McGarrahan's contract with Perini. The construction work on the bridge was necessarily performed in this state, and it is here that Busby, while working on the bridge project, sustained his incapacitating injury. For that incapacity, Busby received compensation benefits under applicable Massachusetts law and then commenced this action against Perini. To protect itself against the consequences of a possible adverse judgment, Perini impleaded McGarrahan as a third-party defendant. The primary case is here on Busby's appeal from a summary judgment in Perini's favor; the third-party proceeding on Busby's and Perini's appeals from a summary judgment for McGarrahan. ¹

It is clear, and the parties agree, that Massachusetts follows the 'common employment' doctrine which imposes a workmen's compensation obligation upon an insured general contractor for a work-connected disability sustained by a subcontractor's employee and at the same time immunizes the general contractor from tort liability for that injury. Brown v. Marr Equipment Corp., 355 Mass. 724, 247 N.E.2d 352 (1969); Preneveau v. E. A. Wilson Co., 353 Mass. 766, 233 N.E.2d 203 (1968). See 23 Mass.Gen.Laws Anno., ch. 152, §§ 15, 18, 24 (1958). The parties also agree that the applicable law of this state apparently differs from the Massachusetts rule; that in Rhode Island recovery of compensation benefits by a subcontractor's employee does not bar our courts from awarding common law damages in a subsequent civil action brought by the worker against the general contractor; and that in a torts conflicts situation the full faith and credit clause of the Federal Constitution does not require the courts of this state to adhere to the exclusive remedy doctrine of a sister state's statutory law pursuant to which the injured worker was, or could have been, awarded compensation benefits. Carroll v. Lanza, 349 U.S. 408, 75 S.Ct. 804, 99 L.Ed. 1183 (1955).

Thus, being free of any constitutional compulsion, we face on this appeal a narrow question of choice of law. The choice is between the Massachusetts rule which would bar Busby's action, and our own law which permits a recovery of tort damages from a general contractor to be superimposed upon a prior compensation award.

In times not long past our reaction would have been mechanical, and we probably would have selected the local law of the 'place of wrong,' that is, the law of the state where the last event necessary to make Perini liable for the alleged tort to Busby took place. Kwasniewski v. N.Y., N.H. & H.R.R., 53 R.I. 144, 164 A. 558 (1933); Pendar v. H. & B. American Machine Co., 35 R.I. 321, 87 A. 1 (1913). Recently, however, we abandoned the vested rights approach under which the lex loci delicti invariably controlled in the choice of the applicable tort law. Woodward v Stewart, 104 R.I. 290, 243 A.2d 917 (1968). Today we follow the rule enunciated by the Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Laws § 145, and, wherever appropriate, we pass on the rights and liabilities of the parties with respect to an issue in tort in accordance with the local law of the state which, with respect to that issue, had the most significant relationship to the occurrence and the parties. Brown v. Church of Holy Name of Jesus, 105 R.I. 322, 252 A.2d 176 (1969); Woodward v. Stewart, supra.

In addition we announced in the Brown and Woodward cases the factors and guidelines which would enter into our choice of law determinations. They require no repetition here. Suffice it to say that in applying those or comparable factors and guidelines to similar fact situations, the cases, as well as the texts, almost invariably say that a forum state, even though under no constitutional compulsion, will apply the law of a sister state immunizing a general contractor from a common law negligence action brought by a subcontractor's employee if under the laws of that state the injured employee has been awarded compensation. Jonathan Woodner Co. v. Mather, 93 U.S.App.D.C. 234, 210 F.2d 868 (1954); Howe v. Diversified Builders, Inc., 262 Cal.App.2d 741, 69 Cal.Rptr. 56 (1968); Wilson v. Faull, 27 N.J. 105, 141 A.2d 768 (1958); Restatement (Second) Conflict of Laws § 184 (1971); 3 Larson,...