Cruz v. Montanez

• Decision Date: 22 December 2009
• Docket Number: No. 17827.,17827.
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: Anastacio CRUZ v. Francisco MONTANEZ et al.

984 A.2d 705

294 Conn. 357

Anastacio CRUZ v. Francisco MONTANEZ et al.

No. 17827.

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

Argued January 14, 2008.

Decided December 22, 2009.

Michael F. Ewing, Bridgeport, for the appellant (plaintiff).

Keith S. McCabe, for the appellee (named defendant).

Thomas Mulligan, Bridgeport, with whom was J. Kevin Golger, for the appellee (defendant Jason Kannon).

Ellen M. Aspell, Glastonbury, for the appellee (intervening plaintiff Weston Gardens, Inc.).

NORCOTT, KATZ, PALMER, VERTEFEUILLE and SCHALLER, Js.

PALMER, J.

The plaintiff, Anastacio Cruz, received workers' compensation benefits from his employer, Weston Gardens, Inc. (Weston Gardens), for injuries that he had suffered in a motor vehicle accident that occurred in the course of his employment. Thereafter, Cruz commenced this action against the two persons who allegedly had caused the accident, the named defendant, Francisco Montanez, and the defendant Jason Kannon, under General Statutes § 31-293(a),¹ which permits an injured employee who receives workers' compensation benefits to bring an action for damages against a third party tortfeasor. Pursuant to § 31-293(a), Weston Gardens intervened as a plaintiff, seeking reimbursement for its workers' compensation payments to Cruz from any damages that Cruz recovered from Montanez and Kannon. After a trial, the jury awarded Cruz $75,000 in noneconomic damages. The trial court rendered judgment apportioning the damages to Weston Gardens in the amount of its workers' compensation payments to Cruz, with the remainder payable to Cruz. On appeal, Cruz claims that the trial court improperly (1) concluded that Weston Gardens is entitled to reimbursement from the jury's award because that award was comprised solely of noneconomic damages, (2) precluded him from introducing into evidence the amount of the workers' compensation benefits that Weston Gardens had paid to him, and (3) concluded that Weston Gardens is entitled to reimbursement for permanent partial disability benefits, hereinafter referred to as loss of use benefits, that Weston Gardens had paid to Cruz. We reject each of Cruz' claims and, therefore, affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The following facts and procedural history are relevant to our resolution of this appeal. On the morning of March 21, 2002, Cruz was riding in the passenger seat of a 1985 Chevrolet pickup truck operated by Montanez. The men were both employed by Weston Gardens, a landscaping company, and were riding in the truck in the course of their employment with Weston Gardens. As Montanez approached the intersection of Eleven O'Clock Road and Ten O'Clock Road in the town of Weston, a vehicle driven by Kannon entered Eleven O'Clock Road from Ten O'Clock Road. Montanez swerved to avoid a collision, and, although there was no contact between the two vehicles, the truck in which Montanez and Cruz were riding collided with a rock wall. Cruz suffered various injuries, including disc protrusions and bulges in the lumbar spine and cervical spine, headaches, chest pain and contusions.

Following the accident, Cruz collected workers' compensation benefits from Weston Gardens in the amount of $26,090.96.² Thereafter, Cruz brought the present action against Montanez³ and Kannon, alleging negligence in the operation of their respective motor vehicles. Cruz also named Weston Gardens as a defendant.⁴

Weston Gardens intervened as a plaintiff in the action pursuant to § 31-293(a), seeking to recover the $26,090.96 that it had paid to Cruz in workers' compensation benefits. Prior to trial, the parties stipulated that this amount consisted of $8054.95 in medical payments, $1977.24 in temporary total disability benefits and $16,058.77 in loss of use benefits. After the stipulation was placed on the record, counsel for Weston Gardens asked to be excused from the proceedings. The trial court granted the request without objection from the other parties.

At trial, Cruz presented evidence of noneconomic damages resulting from the accident. Cruz also sought to introduce the amount of the workers' compensation benefits that he had received from Weston Gardens, but the trial court sustained the objection of Montanez' counsel to the admission of that evidence.⁵ Although the trial court expressly allowed Cruz to adduce evidence of economic damages, Cruz elected not to present any such evidence. At the conclusion of the trial, the jury returned a verdict in favor of Cruz, awarding him $75,000 in noneconomic damages. The jury also concluded that Montanez and Kannon were 60 percent and 40 percent responsible, respectively, for Cruz' injuries.

Montanez thereafter filed a motion for judgment, requesting that the trial court apportion to Weston Gardens the $26,090.96 that it had paid to Cruz in workers' compensation benefits, thereby reducing the portion of the award that Cruz would receive to $48,909.04. Montanez further requested that the court apportion liability between Kannon and himself in accordance with the jury's verdict. Under Montanez' apportionment request, judgment would be rendered against him in the amount of $45,000 (60 percent × $75,000), of which $15,654.58 (60 percent × $26,090.96) would be payable to Weston Gardens and of which $29,345.42 (60 percent x $48,909.04) would be payable to Cruz, the remainder to be paid by Kannon.⁶ Weston Gardens subsequently filed a motion for apportionment that mirrored Montanez' motion for judgment.⁷

Cruz also filed a motion for judgment in which he objected to Montanez' motion and claimed that he was entitled to the full $75,000 in damages awarded by the jury and that that amount was to be apportioned between Montanez and Kannon in the amounts of $45,000 and $30,000, respectively. Cruz maintained that the jury award should not be reduced by the payments that he had received from Weston Gardens in workers' compensation benefits because those payments were for economic damages that he had sustained as a result of the accident and he had sought and recovered only noneconomic damages against Montanez and Kannon. Cruz further argued that, at a minimum, the loss of use payments that he had received from Weston Gardens should not be included in any amount to be deducted from the $75,000 award for purposes of reimbursing Weston Gardens because such payments do not constitute "compensation" paid by an employer to an injured employee for which reimbursement to the employer is contemplated under § 31-293(a).

In its memorandum of decision on the parties' motions, the trial court denied Cruz' motion for judgment and granted both Montanez' motion for judgment and Weston Gardens' motion for apportionment. In doing so, the trial court first identified the relevant language of General Statutes § 31-293(a), which provides: "If the employer and the employee join as parties plaintiff in the action and any damages are recovered, the damages shall be so apportioned that the claim of the employer ... shall take precedence over that of the injured employee in the proceeds of the recovery. ..." The trial court concluded that the statutory language plainly and unambiguously directs that the employer's claim, which takes precedence over the employee's claim, shall be satisfied from "any damages" that the plaintiff may recover against the third party tortfeasor. (Emphasis added.) General Statutes § 31-293(a). The trial court further concluded that, because the term "any damages" is broad and encompassing, and does not differentiate between economic and noneconomic damages, the court was required to reduce the jury award of noneconomic damages by an amount equal to the workers' compensation benefits that Weston Gardens had paid to Cruz. Accordingly, the court rendered judgment against Montanez in the amount of $45,000 and against Kannon in the amount of $30,000, from which a total of $26,090.96 was payable to Weston Gardens and $48,909.04 was payable to Cruz.

On appeal,⁸ Cruz renews the claims that he raised in the trial court. Cruz also maintains that Weston Gardens could have recovered the $26,090.96 in workers' compensation benefits that it had paid to Cruz but only if Weston Gardens had presented evidence of those payments at trial and received its own award against Montanez and Kannon or, alternatively, only if Weston Gardens had commenced a separate action against Montanez and Kannon under § 31-293(a) seeking an award in the amount of its workers' compensation payments to Cruz. We reject Cruz' claims.

I

We first address Cruz' contention that the trial court improperly interpreted § 31-293(a) in concluding that Weston Gardens was entitled to an apportionment of the jury award even though the award consisted solely of noneconomic damages. Because § 31-293(a) expressly provides that an employer's claim for reimbursement of workers' compensation benefits takes precedence over any damages that an injured employee receives in a third party action, we reject Cruz' claim.

"A brief overview of the workers' compensation principles that are implicated by this issue is warranted. When an employee suffers a work-related injury, workers' compensation benefits are the exclusive remedy as between the employee and the employer. General Statutes § 31-284(a). The employee, however, may bring a civil action against parties other than the employer who are responsible for the employee's injuries. See General Statutes § 31-293. When an employee brings such an action, [§]31-293 ... provide[s] that ... the plaintiff's employer ... may join the proceedings as a plaintiff and recover from the judgment against the third party any compensation benefits paid. Specifically, the [statute] provide[s] the [employer] with a right of reimbursement from the judgment against the third party for `(1) the amount of any compensation which [it] has paid on account of the injury which is the subject of the suit and (2) an amount equal to the present worth of any probable future payments...