Civardi v. City of Norwich

• Decision Date: 08 November 1994
• Docket Number: No. 14982,14982
• Citation: 649 A.2d 523,231 Conn. 287
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: Robert CIVARDI v. CITY OF NORWICH et al.

Page 523

649 A.2d 523

231 Conn. 287

Robert CIVARDI v. CITY OF NORWICH et al.

No. 14982.

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

Argued Sept. 22, 1994.

Decided Nov. 8, 1994.

Richard S. Bartlett, Vernon, for appellants (named defendant et al.).

Nancy R. Sussman, Asst. Atty. Gen., with whom, on the brief, were Richard Blumenthal, Atty. Gen., and William J. McCullough, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee (defendant Second Injury and Compensation Assurance Fund).

PETERS, C.J., and CALLAHAN, BORDEN, BERDON and KATZ, JJ.

KATZ, Justice.

The sole issue on appeal is whether the named defendant, the city of Norwich, by properly transferring its obligation to pay for the "compensation and medical treatment" of its injured employee, the plaintiff, Robert Civardi, to the defendant second injury fund (fund) under General Statutes (Rev. to 1983) § 31-349, ¹ thereby also transferred its responsibility under General Statutes (Rev. to 1983) § 31-284b, ² to pay for Civardi's insurance benefits. In its appeal from the decision of the workers' compensation review board denying its request to transfer to the fund its obligations under § 31-284b, Norwich maintains that the transfer of a case to the fund pursuant to § 31-349 simultaneously creates an obligation on the part of the fund to continue § 31-284b benefits as "compensation." We disagree.

The following facts are undisputed. On August 12, 1983, Civardi sustained an injury to his back while in the course of his employment with Norwich. Because this 1983 injury aggravated preexisting injuries to his back, Norwich paid Civardi workers' compensation disability benefits through July 23, 1986, pursuant to a voluntary agreement, as provided for by General Statutes (Rev. to 1983) § 31-296. ³ As of July 24, 1986, pursuant to § 31-349, Norwich transferred to the fund its responsibility to pay to Civardi any remaining liability for weekly indemnity payments. ⁴ Norwich has, however, continued to date to pay Civardi's health insurance benefits as required by § 31-284b.

At a hearing before a workers' compensation commissioner on December 3, 1991, Norwich disputed its obligation to pay Civardi's § 31-284b insurance benefits for the period of time following July 24, 1986, arguing that it had transferred to the fund, pursuant to § 31-349, not only its liability for indemnity payments, but also its responsibility to pay for Civardi's § 31-284b insurance benefits. Rejecting Norwich's argument, the commissioner concluded that § 31-349 did not transfer to the fund Norwich's obligation to pay Civardi's § 31-284b benefits. Following an appeal pursuant to General Statutes §§ 31-280b(b), ⁵ and 31-301(b), ⁶ the compensation review board concluded that the transfer of § 31-284b benefits pursuant to § 31-349 may occur only after 104 weeks of total disability, and that Civardi was not totally disabled. Pursuant to § 31-301b, ⁷ Norwich appealed that decision to the Appellate Court, and we thereafter transferred the appeal to this court pursuant to Practice Book § 4023 and General Statutes § 51-199c. We hold that § 31-284b benefits are not "compensation" within the meaning of General Statutes (Rev. to 1983) § 31-349 and therefore affirm. ⁸

We begin our analysis with a discussion of the fund's history and the purpose underlying its enactment. Connecticut, like most states, established the fund primarily to foster employment of individuals with an existing disability. See Hernandez v. Gerber Group, 222 Conn. 78, 82, 608 A.2d 87 (1992). "To prevent discrimination against handicapped workers, while providing the benefits of [workers'] compensation to such workers, virtually every state has enacted some form of second injury fund legislation.... Such legislation is also designed to relieve employers from the hardship of liability for those consequences of compensable injury not attributable to their employment." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Id. Furthermore, the combined effect of a successive injury to someone with a preexisting disability can far exceed the combined allowances for each injury existing separately. ⁹ Therefore, under § 31-349, the employer by whom the employee is employed at the time of the second injury must pay all wages, benefits and covered medical costs only for the first 104 weeks of disability. Thereafter, pursuant to § 31-349, liability is transferred and all responsibility for "compensation and medical treatment" rests with the custodian of the fund.

Mindful of this history, we have cautioned that "[p]ayment of an award from a special fund such as the second injury and compensation assurance fund, which was established, inter alia, to assist in the payment of compensation awarded to handicapped and disadvantaged workers; General Statutes §§ 31-349--31-355; see Everett v. Ingraham, 150 Conn. 153, 158, 186 A.2d 798 [1962]; should be made only in accordance with express statutory authority; 101 C.J.S., Workmen's Compensation, § 837 [1958]; in order to protect that special fund and prevent unwarranted diversions of it from the specific purpose for which it was created." Going v. Cromwell Fire District, 159 Conn. 53, 61, 267 A.2d 428 (1970). The absence of any such express statutory authority therefore undermines the claim that the fund must assume liability for Civardi's § 31-284b insurance benefits as a part of the § 31-349 transfer of liability for "compensation."

Our resolution of this issue is further supported by the legislative history of § 31-284b. It is well established that in discerning legislative intent, we consider the statute's specific language, the legislative policy that the statute was designed to implement, the history surrounding the statute's enactment and the statute's relationship to existing legislation. See Lauer v. Zoning Commission, 220 Conn. 455, 459-60, 600 A.2d 310 (1991). This exercise leads us to conclude that the expanded definition of "compensation" proffered by Norwich would exceed the legislative intent and place an undesired and unanticipated burden on the fund.

The legislature enacted § 31-284b following the decision in Stone & Webster Engineering Corp. v. Ilsley, 518 F.Sup. 1297 (D.Conn.1981), that General Statutes (Rev. to 1981) § 31-51h ¹⁰ was unconstitutional. ¹¹ In Ilsley, the United Stated District Court ruled that by impermissibly regulating the duration of payments made by an employer to a jointly administered employee union welfare fund and altering an employer's obligations pursuant to negotiated benefit plans, § 31-51h interferred with federal regulation under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Id., at 1300. Because federal lawmakers had clearly expressed in ERISA that federal law preempted the application of state laws in these areas, the court concluded that § 31-51h unconstitutionally intruded into the field. ¹² Id., at 1302. The District Court noted, however, that the state law might have avoided ERISA preemption if the law had imposed obligations on employers only as part of the workers' compensation regime. Id., at 1301, citing 29 U.S.C. § 1003(b)(3). In 1982, pending the appeal in Ilsley, Connecticut lawmakers, aware that the District Court opinion might be affirmed, and in an effort to fall within the exception, attempted to insulate the obligations flowing from § 31-51h against constitutional challenge by placing them within the Workers' Compensation Act.

The legislative history makes clear that § 31-284b was drafted to express the obligations then currently stated in § 31-51h. As stated in the Senate debate: "What we are doing here is taking the exact same language and moving it into workers' compensation statutes. There is no change in benefits. As I said before, there is no change in the way in which we are dealing with it. We feel that if we move it into the workers' [compensation] statutes that we would meet some of the problems that the court has already pointed out." 25 S.Proc., Pt. 4, 1982 Sess., p. 1171, remarks of Senator Michael J. Skelley. Even those who opposed the passage of the new act pending a definitive ruling from the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit shared the view that the act did not change any statutory obligations. They argued that: "[b]ecause the obligations which Bill 345 proposed are identical to those currently mandated by section 31-51h the bill presents the same questions as are being litigated in [Ilsley ]. If the Court of Appeals reverses the lower court ruling, section 31-51h will continue to be applicable, making Bill 345 totally unnecessary. If the Court of Appeals affirms the lower court ruling rendering section 31-51h void, the legislation before you continues rather than resolves the legal defects upon which such a decision would be based." Conn.Joint Standing Committee Hearings, Labor and Public Employees, Pt. 1, 1982 Sess., p. 118. The pertinent part of § 31-284b provides, as did § 31-51h, that an employer, when it has provided fringe benefits for its working employees, must create a plan for the injured employee who is receiving or is entitled to receive workers' compensation. We therefore conclude that there is nothing surrounding the enactment of § 31-284b to indicate that the 1982 legislature intended to change the benefits transferrable to the fund under § 31-349.

The legislature also provided in § 31-284b that in any case where workers' compensation payments to an individual for total incapacity under the provisions of § 31-307 continue for more than 104 weeks, health and life insurance benefits are transferrable to the fund in accordance with § 31-349. General Statutes § 31-284b(d). This section was drafted to incorporate that portion of § 31-51h, enacted as No. 81-464 of the 1981 Public Acts, intended to deal with "an employee that is totally incapacitated and if that's the case [then] that particular liability or burden that the employer would bear in carrying out his health benefits would be picked up by the second...