Dominion Caisson Corp. v. Clark

• Decision Date: 09 October 1992
• Docket Number: No. 91-CV-104.,91-CV-104.
• Citation: 614 A.2d 529
• Parties: DOMINION CAISSON CORPORATION, Appellant, v. Timothy CLARK, Appellee.
• Court: D.C. Court of Appeals

614 A.2d 529

DOMINION CAISSON CORPORATION, Appellant, v. Timothy CLARK, Appellee.

No. 91-CV-104.

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Argued September 15, 1992.

Decided October 9, 1992.

Francis J. Prior, Jr., Fairfax, Va., for appellant.

Michelle A. Parfitt, Washington, D.C., for appellee.

Before TERRY, SCHWELB and FARRELL, Associate Judges.

FARRELL, Associate Judge:

This case presents a choice of law question arising from an accident on a construction site in the District of Columbia. Appellee Timothy Clark filed for and was awarded workers' compensation benefits in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The benefits were paid by his immediate employer, Buddy Clark Concrete. Appellee then filed suit in the District of Columbia against a subcontractor on the construction site, Dominion Caisson Corporation (appellant here), and the general contractor, Erin Construction, Inc., alleging that their negligence at the site caused his injuries. Dominion Caisson moved for summary judgment, pointing out that under Virginia law Erin Construction was Timothy Clark's "statutory employer," and that as Dominion Caisson was engaged in the same business, occupation and trade as Erin Construction at the time of the accident, Virginia law immunized it from common law suit for damages. Dominion Caisson then argued that Virginia law should apply to this case because the District of Columbia's sole connection with the action was that "it was the mere fortuitous location of the accident in question." The trial judge denied summary judgment, concluding that District of Columbia law applied to the suit and that District law erects no barrier to a suit against third parties such as Dominion Caisson and Erin Construction. The judge denied Dominion Caisson's motion for reconsideration, but permitted it to file an interlocutory appeal under D.C.Code § 11-721(d) (1989); this court granted Dominion leave to appeal on April 19, 1991.¹ We now affirm.

I.

The general contractor on the site of the injury was Erin Construction, a Virginia corporation with its principal place of business in Virginia.² Appellant Dominion Caisson, also a Virginia corporation with its principal place of business in Virginia, was acting as a subcontractor to Erin Construction at the site. Appellee Timothy Clark, a Virginia resident, was a direct employee of Buddy Clark Concrete, which was a subcontractor to First Choice Concrete, Inc.; First Choice Concrete, in turn, was a subcontractor to Erin Construction. It does not appear disputed that all of the contracts for employment were entered into in Virginia.

After appellee was injured, he was paid workers' compensation under Virginia law by his direct employer, Buddy Clark Concrete.³ Under Virginia law, all of the named employers — including Dominion Caisson — were protected from suit for damages by Timothy Clark by virtue of the "canopy" of Erin Construction's status as Clark's statutory employer, since all were engaged at the time in work that was part of the trade, business or occupation of Erin Construction. E.g., Smith v. Horn, 232 Va. 302, 351 S.E.2d 14 (1986); Anderson v. Thorington Construction Co., 201 Va. 266, 110 S.E.2d 396 (1959), appeal dismissed, 363 U.S. 719, 80 S.Ct. 1596, 4 L.Ed.2d 1521 (1960). Specifically, Virginia's concept of statutory employer

brings within the operation of the Virginia Compensation Act all persons engaged in any work that is a part of the trade, business or occupation of the original party who undertakes as owner, or contracts as contractor, to perform that work, and ... makess liable to every employee engaged in that work every such owner, or contractor and subcontractor, above such employee.

Bassett Furniture Indus. v. McReynolds, 216 Va. 897, 224 S.E.2d 323, 326 (1976). See VA.CODE ANN. § 65.2-302 (Michie 1991).⁴ In return, however, the exclusivity provision of Virginia's compensation law bars an injured employee from suing for damages any subcontractor performing the trade or business of the owner or general contractor at the time of injury. Smith v. Horn, 351 S.E.2d at 16; Anderson v. Thorington Construction Co., 110 S.E.2d at 399-400. "If the defendant was engaged in work which was part of the undertaking of the owner or general contractor, regardless of his relationship to the injured workman and his immediate employer," Virginia law "operates to place the economic loss upon the project and to limit the workman's recovery to that specified in the Compensation Act." Bergen v. Fourth Skyline Corp., 501 F.2d 1174, 1175-76 (4th Cir. 1974). Therefore, if Virginia's workers' compensation law governs this case, Timothy Clark's suit against Dominion Caisson for negligence was barred.

In his suit in Superior Court, however, appellee maintained — and the trial judge agreed — that District of Columbia law applied to this case. Unlike Virginia, the District's workers' compensation scheme has no statutory employer provision extending liability (and corresponding tort immunity) up the ladder of subcontractors to the owner or general contractor. Under the District's scheme, an "employer" is only the entity with whom the employee is in a direct employment relationship. D.C.Code § 36-301(10) (1988).⁵ Thus, although the District's scheme also contains an exclusivity provision, D.C.Code § 36-304, it bars common law suits only against the injured employee's immediate employer and allows suits against all others as third parties. See Meiggs v. Associated Builders, Inc., 545 A.2d 631 (D.C.1988), cert. denied, 490 U.S. 1116, 109 S.Ct. 3178, 104 L.Ed.2d 1040 (1989).⁶ In concluding that District of Columbia law should apply here, the trial judge relied on this court's explanation in Meiggs of the legislative decision generally to bar suits only against an employee's immediate employer. Echoing that discussion, the judge reasoned that "the District of Columbia has an overriding interest in holding corporations liable to the full extent of the law in negligence actions arising out of employment in the District and in protecting members of the work force who are injured in the performance of their duties in the District."

II.

The question on appeal is thus one of choice of law, an issue concerning which we apply District of Columbia choice of law rules. Kaiser-Georgetown Community Health Plan v. Stutsman, 491 A.2d 502, 507 (D.C.1989). As we stated in Moore v. Ronald Hsu Constr. Co., 576 A.2d 734 (D.C.1990), to decide such questions

this court employs a modified governmental interests analysis which seeks to identify the jurisdiction with the most significant relationship to the dispute. We must evaluate the governmental policies underlying the applicable laws and determine which jurisdiction's policy would be most advanced by having its law applied to the facts of the case under review.

Id. at 737 (internal citations and quotation marks omitted). Dominion contends that Virginia's public policy "as expressed in its statutory employer law" would be unnecessarily frustrated by allowing suit in this case, which involves Virginia employers and a Virginia employee, based solely upon the occurrence of the alleged tort and injury in the District of Columbia. Appellee counters that the District has a strong interest in deterring preventable accidents and in protecting the rights of employees engaged in work in the District of Columbia, an interest paramount to Virginia's stake in restricting liability of subcontractors such as Dominion Caisson not obliged to insure the particular plaintiff, and with respect to accidents occurring outside of Virginia. We think appellee has the better of the argument.

Appellant's argument would be stronger, perhaps unassailable, if Dominion Caisson were Timothy Clark's employer or statutory employer under Virginia law. In that event it would perhaps be enough to cite the result and that part of the reasoning in Jonathan Woodner Co. v. Mather, 93 U.S.App.D.C. 234, 210 F.2d 868, cert. denied, 348 U.S. 824, 75 S.Ct. 39, 99 L.Ed. 650 (1954), which discussed a similar choice of law between the District's compensation statute and Maryland's broader grant of employer immunity resulting from its statutory employer provision. The defendant-employer "was required by the law of the state Maryland where the work was done and where the injury occurred to provide compensation insurance" for the plaintiff. Id. 93 U.S.App.D.C. at 239, 210 F.2d at 873. Accordingly, the court stated:

the employer has incurred the burden of providing workmen's compensation insurance. The employee has foregone his right to sue the employer for negligence. But both have also gained. The employer has gained an immunity from common law suit. The employee has gained a right to relief even where his injury did not arise through the fault of his employer. The courts clearly consider that this system of mutual give and take would be upset if the employee could sue for negligence in another jurisdiction.... Both employee and principal contractor are in some ways damaged and in other ways benefited by the Maryland Act. If the employee were allowed to sue for damages in another jurisdiction, in cases where the Maryland Act could apply, this balance would be upset.

Id. at 239-40, 210 F.2d at 873-74 (footnote omitted). See also RESTATEMENT (SECOND) OF CONFLICT OF LAWS § 184 (1971); 4 LARSON, THE LAW OF WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION § 88.11 (1990).

But here Dominion Caisson was not appellee's employer or statutory employer and hence not obliged to provide workers' compensation insurance for him. See VA. CODE ANN. § 65.2-302; Bassett Furniture Indus., supra. The quid pro quo explained in Jonathan Woodner is therefore not implicated, and appellant is forced to assert what the Virginia courts have termed the "larger dimensions" of that state's particular exchange of immunity for workers' compensation coverage:

It is a societal exchange, benefitting all employers and all employees who stand together under the canopy of

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