Crider v. Zurich Insurance Company

• Decision Date: 10 August 1965
• Docket Number: No. 20633.,20633.
• Citation: 348 F.2d 211
• Parties: Thomas J. CRIDER, Appellant, v. ZURICH INSURANCE COMPANY, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

348 F.2d 211 (1965)

Thomas J. CRIDER, Appellant, v. ZURICH INSURANCE COMPANY, Appellee.

No. 20633.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

July 12, 1965.

Rehearing Denied August 10, 1965.

Max Pope, J. Terry Huffstutler, Birmingham, Ala., for appellant.

Foster Etheredge, Birmingham, Ala., for appellee.

Before TUTTLE, Chief Judge, JONES, Circuit Judge, and JOHNSON, District Judge.

JONES, Circuit Judge.

The appellant, Thomas J. Crider, a resident of Alabama, was an employee of A. H. Lawler Construction Company, Inc., a corporation having its headquarters in Georgia. He was injured while working for Lawler in Alabama. He brought an action against Lawler in the Circuit Court of DeKalb County, Alabama, to recover for his injuries. In the first count of his original complaint he sought benefits under the Alabama workmen's compensation law and by two additional counts he sought recovery on common law negligence averments. He amended his complaint by adding a count setting forth a claim under the workmen's compensation law of Georgia, and striking all three of the counts of his original complaint. The Alabama court entered a default against Lawler and a judgment against it for $10,500 and costs. Crider then brought suit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, against Zurich Insurance Company, the workmen's compensation insurer of Lawler, on the state court default judgment. The district court, relying on Green v. J. A. Jones Construction Co., 5th Cir. 1947, 161 F.2d 359, held that a remedy under the Georgia Workmen's Compensation Act can only be afforded by the Georgia State Board of Workmen's Compensation in a proceeding brought before it. The district court, having reached this conclusion, decided that the Alabama state court was without jurisdiction and its judgment was void. The suit was dismissed. Crider v. Zurich Insurance Co., 224 F.Supp. 87. This Court, citing Green v. J. A. Jones Construction Co., supra, affirmed. Crider v. Zurich Insurance Co., 5th Cir. 1963, 324 F.2d 499. Our decision was reversed by the Supreme Court. Crider v. Zurich Insurance Co., 380 U.S. 39, 85 S.Ct. 769, 13 L.Ed.2d 641.

The Supreme Court expressed the view that Green v. J. A. Jones Construction Co., supra, had been or might have been decided upon the erroneous principle¹ that the Full Faith clause² precluded the Alabama courts, and the Federal courts in an Alabama diversity case, from affording a remedy where the Georgia compensation act prescribes a proceeding before the Georgia compensation board. The case was reversed with a direction that we reconsider our holding free from any supposed constitutional compulsion.

If this Court was in the constitutional area of full faith and credit in following the precedent of Green v. J. A. Jones Construction Co., we were not aware of it. The district court opinion of Judge Grooms carries no indication of consciousness of making a decision based upon a constitutional principle. Professor Larson, apparently, regarding the question as one of conflicts, says:

"It may be noted that this conflict of laws discussion is entirely in terms of `which statute applies\' and not of `which state has jurisdiction.\' However, the two usually coincide, since, under the rule that a claim, to be valid, must follow the designated procedure, and under the requirement that only the special tribunal created by the particular state can administer claims thereunder, rights created by the compensation act of one state cannot ordinarily be enforced in another state or in a federal court." 2 Larson Workmen\'s Compensation Law 356, § 84.20.

Cited for the quoted rule is Grenier v. Alta Crest Farms, Inc., 115 Vt. 324, 58 A.2d 884, and Green v. J. A. Jones Construction Co. The question, as treated by Larson, does not appear to be geared to any constitutional doctrines. Grenier v. Alta Crest Farms decided that a Vermont commissioner of industrial relations was without jurisdiction to make an award under the Massachusetts Workmen's Compensation Act which provided an exclusive remedy for enforcement before a special tribunal created for that purpose.

In the Restatement we find it said that

"If a state makes the existence of a cause of action conditional on some act or event, no suit can be maintained in another state unless the condition is satisfied." Restatement, Conflict of Laws 735, § 618.

The comment upon the foregoing includes the following:

"So where a Workmen\'s Compensation Act provides for the fixing of the amount of compensation by a commission, no action can be brought on such a claim until the amount of compensation has been so fixed." Id.

The general rule has been stated in this fashion:

"Moreover, the rights, remedies, and procedure provided by the compensation laws are exclusive; and matters relating to compensation laws are exclusive; and matters relating to compensation claims are governed exclusively by the provisions of the acts, and are not controlled by general rules of procedure applicable in cases in law or equity, except as specifically provided." 99 C.J.S. p. 52, Workmen\'s Compensation § 6.

We do not have here a statute creating a new cause of action in an injured employee against his employer which is enforceable by a common law remedy in a judicial action. Cf. Franzen v. E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., 3rd Cir. 1944, 146 F.2d 837. What we have is a new right enforceable only by a statutory proceeding before an administrative commission. As was said by the Supreme Court of Georgia:

"The rights and liabilities of employers and employees are governed by the Workmen\'s Compensation Act. The ordinary rules of law do not apply to actions arising under that statute, but the act itself constitutes a complete code of laws upon the subject." Tillman v. Moody, 181 Ga. 530, 182 S.E. 906. See Maryland Casualty Co. v. Stephens, 76 Ga.App. 723, 47 S.E.2d 108.

The Supreme Court of Alabama, in Pound v. Gaulding, 237 Ala. 387, 187 So. 468, recognized the principle that "Workmen's Compensation statutes create rights and remedies and procedure all their own" and, as we read the opinion, treats the jurisdictional question of the extraterritorial effect of such statutes as being one of conflict of laws. No constitutional problem is suggested. See also Alabama By-Products Co. v. Landgraff, 32 Ala.App. 343, 27 So.2d 209, aff. 248 Ala. 253, 27 So.2d 215.

The reported case from which we gain the most light upon the case before us, since Green...