Garcia v. Middle Rio Grande Conservancy Dist.
| Decision Date | 12 April 1983 |
| Docket Number | No. 5790,5790 |
| Citation | 1983 NMCA 47,99 N.M. 802,664 P.2d 1000 |
| Parties | Kathleen Mary GARCIA, Individually and as Mother and Next Friend of Alice Irene Garcia and Jerry Richard Garcia, minors, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. MIDDLE RIO GRANDE CONSERVANCY DISTRICT and American Manufacturers Mutual Insurance Company, Defendants-Appellants. |
| Court | Court of Appeals of New Mexico |
The defendants Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District (District) and its insurer, American Manufacturers Mutual Insurance Company (American), appeal from a judgment awarding workmen's compensation benefits to plaintiff, and her two minor children.
Defendants have raised five issues on appeal: (1) claim of trial court error in awarding workmen's compensation benefits because plaintiff's settlement with a third-party tortfeasor bars further recovery under the Workmen's Compensation Act; (2) claim of error in failing to find that award of additional workmen's compensation benefits is barred by reason of plaintiff's remarriage; (3) trial court error in failing to properly credit payment of a lump sum award; (4) trial court error in calculating decedent's average weekly wage; and (5) excessive attorneys fees. We reverse.
On March 14, 1979, Joseph R. Garcia, the husband of plaintiff Kathleen Mary Garcia, was killed when the vehicle he was driving was struck by an Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company (Railway) freight train at a railroad crossing near Socorro. At the time of his death, decedent was driving a vehicle owned by his employer, the District, and was carrying out duties in the course and scope of his employment. During their marriage, decedent and plaintiff had two children, Alice Irene Garcia and Jerry Richard Garcia, both minors.
Following the death of decedent, the District and American paid decedent's medical and funeral expenses and voluntarily commenced paying workmen's compensation death benefits to plaintiff and the two minor children pursuant to Sec. 52-1-46, N.M.S.A.1978. Plaintiff, as a widow and the mother of two minor children was paid weekly benefits in the sum of $156.35 per week from March 19, 1979, to January 19, 1980.
On September 11, 1979, plaintiff, individually and as next friend of her two minor children, filed a wrongful death action in federal court against the Railway seeking damages resulting from the death of Joseph R. Garcia. Thereafter, on January 19, 1980, plaintiff married Lorenzo Rodriguez. Immediately following plaintiff's marriage, pursuant to Sec. 52-1-46(C)(4), supra, American paid plaintiff a lump sum payment consisting of two years compensation benefits totalling $10,975.12, and continued paying workmen's compensation benefits to the minor children in the amount of $50.82 per week.
On April 7, 1980, plaintiff obtained a divorce from her new husband on the grounds of incompatibility. Within thirty days from the entry of the decree, plaintiff sought to reopen the divorce proceedings, and on May 16, 1980, the district court entered an order setting aside the final decree of divorce and granting an annulment of plaintiff's marriage on the basis that on January 19, 1980, she "was unable to enter into a valid marriage contract because of temporary mental disability."
On July 8, 1980, the plaintiff settled the wrongful death suit against the Railway on her own behalf and also on behalf of her two minor children for the sum of $28,000.00. From the settlement proceeds, plaintiff paid $7,000.00 to American in satisfaction of its right of reimbursement for workmen's compensation benefits. From the remaining $21,000.00, plaintiff paid her attorney who had brought the suit, (not her counsel herein), and retained the balance of the recovery, approximately $8,500, for herself and her two children.
Several months later, on December 22, 1980, plaintiff, through new counsel, filed suit in her individual capacity and as next friend of her children against the District and American, seeking the payment of additional workmen's compensation benefits for herself and her two minor children and alleging that defendants had failed and refused to pay compensation benefits due plaintiff.
The answer of the District and American admitted that decedent had been killed while acting in the scope and the course of his employment and that plaintiff and her two children were the widow and surviving minor heirs of decedent. It asserted inter alia that plaintiff was not entitled to additional workmen's compensation benefits (1) because plaintiff's remarriage resulted in the payment of a lump sum compromise and settlement as to her benefits and (2) because plaintiff's settlement of the action individually and on behalf of her two minor children against the Railway, as a third-party tort-feasor, legally barred any additional recovery for her or her children.
Following a trial on the merits, the trial court adopted findings of fact and conclusions of law in favor of plaintiff and entered judgment on April 5, 1982, awarding plaintiff and her children workmen's compensation benefits payable at the rate of $167.89 per week commencing March 14, 1979 (the date of decedent's death) and continuing for a period of 600 weeks. Plaintiff was awarded attorney's fees in the sum of $4,680.00. The court further determined that defendants should have paid compensation in the sum of $25,855.00, through February, 1982, and that after crediting defendants with payment of the sum of $22,743.28, including the $10,975.12 paid to the plaintiff by defendants as a lump sum settlement upon her remarriage, $3,111.72, was still owing to plaintiffs as of February 28, 1982.
Defendants assert that the trial court erred in failing to find plaintiff's settlement of the wrongful death action against the Railway barred plaintiff's claim for further workmen's compensation benefits against defendants. Although acknowledging that the rule enunciated in Britz v. Joy Mfg. Co., 97 N.M. 595, 642 P.2d 198 (Ct.App.1982), cert. quashed, 98 N.M. 51, 644 P.2d 1040, 1982, militates against the decision of the trial court herein, plaintiff argues that Britz should be overruled and we should adopt a different rule that would permit her and her children to receive workmen's compensation benefits despite plaintiff's recovery of damages against the Railway, unless there is a showing that the workman or his dependents have obtained a double recovery or that the workman or his heirs have prejudiced the right of the employer or compensation carrier to a right of reimbursement.
The decision in Britz v. Joy Mfg. Co., supra, is dispositive of the instant appeal. There the court held:
The law in New Mexico is clear that having recovered from a third party tortfeasor, a workman is barred from receiving workmen's compensation benefits. Section 52-1-56(C), [N.M.S.A.1978]; White v. New Mexico Highway Commission, 42 N.M. 626, 83 P.2d 457 (1938); Thomas v. Barber's Super Markets, Inc., 74 N.M. 720, 398 P.2d 51 (1964). Where a claimant has sought relief from a third party the amount of the recovery is for the full loss or detriment suffered by the injured party and makes him financially whole, and thus any subsequent compensation claim is barred. Castro v. Bass, 74 N.M. 254, 392 P.2d 668 (1964); Seminara v. Frank Seminara Pontiac-Buick, Inc., 95 N.M. 22, 618 P.2d 366 (Ct.App.1980).
In Britz, supra, plaintiff argued that although he had settled with a third party, he recovered an amount less than he was entitled to under the Workmen's Compensation Act, consequently he should be entitled to an award of compensation benefits despite the settlement. The court in Britz, referring to Sec. 52-1-56(C), supra, observed: See also Security Insurance Co. of Hartford v. Chapman, 88 N.M. 292, 540 P.2d 222 (1975). Justice McManus, speaking for the court in Security Insurance Co., stated that "once an employee has recovered a judgment against a third-party tort-feasor, that employee may not thereafter claim [workmen's] compensation for the same injury."
Section 52-1-56(C), supra, specifies:
The right of any workman, or, in case of his death, of those entitled to receive payment or damages for injuries occasioned to him by the negligence or wrong of any person other than the employer ... shall not be affected by the Workmen's Compensation Act, but he or they, as the case may be, shall not be allowed to receive payment or recover damages therefor and also claim compensation from the employer .... [Emphasis added.]
New Mexico follows the rule that where a plaintiff has sought relief from a third-party tort-feasor the amount of the recovery is for the full loss or detriment suffered by the injured party and makes him financially whole. Seminara v. Frank Seminara Pontiac-Buick Inc., supra; Castro v. Bass, supra. After a workman or his survivors have effected a recovery of damages through a settlement with a third party for injuries sustained by the workman and incurred during the scope and course of his employment, any subsequent workmen's compensation claim is barred. Seminara v. Frank Seminara Pontiac-Buick Inc., supra; Strickland v. Roosevelt County Rural Electric Coop., 22 N.M.Bar.Bull. 86 (Ct.App., Jan. 27, 1983), cert. denied, 22 N.M.Bar.Bull. 169 (Feb. 17, 1983); Security Insurance Company of Hartford v. Chapman, supra; White v. New Mexico Highway Commission, supra. The exception to this rule noted in Brown v. Arapahoe...
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