Jones v. Thomas

• Decision Date: 10 January 1983
• Docket Number: No. 82-C-1484,82-C-1484
• Citation: 426 So.2d 609
• Parties: Willie JONES v. John THOMAS, the Audubon Park Commission, Puritan Insurance Company and the City of New Orleans.
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court

Page 609

426 So.2d 609

Willie JONES v. John THOMAS, the Audubon Park Commission, Puritan Insurance Company and the City of New Orleans.

No. 82-C-1484.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

Jan. 10, 1983.

Rehearings Denied Feb. 11, 1983.

Gregory P. Dileo, A.J. Capritto, New Orleans, for applicant.

Robert E. Kerrigan, Jr., Deutsch, Derrigan & Stiles, James HaneMann, Jr., New Orleans, for respondent.

LEMMON, Justice.

The legal issue in this case is whether an injured employee's compensation remedy against his employer is the exclusive remedy when the employee's injury is caused by the intentional act of a coemployee under circumstances which would cause the employer to be vicariously liable if the injured person had been a third person who had no employment relationship with the employer. The trial court answered the question in the affirmative by maintaining the employer's exception of no cause of action and dismissing the employee's suit. The court of appeal affirmed. 413 So.2d 180. We granted the employee's application for certiorari to review these rulings. 420 So.2d 162.

According to the allegations of the employee's petition (which must be accepted as true for the purpose of an exception of no cause of action), plaintiff-employee's coemployee intentionally struck plaintiff in the head during working hours and caused the injuries which are at issue in this litigation.

Citing LaBrane v. Lewis, 292 So.2d 216 (La.1974), plaintiff contends that an employer is vicariously liable for the intentional (as well as the negligent) acts of an employee when the conduct causing the injury is so closely connected in time, place and causation to the employment duties that the conduct must be regarded as a risk of harm fairly attributable to the employer's business. On the other hand, defendant-employer argues that the employer did not expressly or implicitly authorize the injury-causing conduct and did not benefit from it, nor was the action taken by the employee in furtherance of the employer's interest so as to make the employer vicariously liable for the consequences of the employee's conduct.

However, since this matter is before us on an exception of no cause of action, we are not as concerned with the question of whether the employer may be held vicariously liable for the particular conduct of the employee under the facts alleged in the petition (or even the facts which may be alleged in an amended petition and proved at trial) as we are with the question of whether the employer can ever be held vicariously liable, under any facts and circumstances, for the employee's intentional act when the victim of the intentional act is also an employee of the employer. This issue has been brought into focus since the 1976 amendment to La.R.S. 23:1032 expanded the exclusivity of the compensation remedy by barring suits not only against the employer, but also against the coemployees of the employer, with certain exceptions. ¹

Prior to the 1976 amendment, an injured employee, although not entitled to maintain a tort action against his employer for injuries incurred in a work-related incident, was entitled to maintain a tort action against his coemployees, and the courts entertained many tort actions in which the injury resulted from a breach of responsibility owed by an executive officer. See Adams v. Fidelity and Cas. Co., 107 So.2d 496 (La.App. 1st Cir.1958); Canter v. Koehring Co., 283 So.2d 716 (La.1973). The 1976 legislation was designed to close the "executive officer" loophole in the exclusiveness of the compensation remedy and to extend tort immunity not only to employers, but also to principals (who had previously enjoyed only a jurisprudentially established immunity) and to employees of employers and principals, except for "liability, civil or criminal, resulting from an intentional act". ² This court has held, in accordance with our perception of legislative intent, that the exception should be confined to those cases involving intentional torts as traditionally defined. See Bazley v. Tortorich, 397 So.2d 475 (La.1981).

The particular question presented by the instant case is whether the 1976 amendment's general grant of tort immunity should be withheld from an employer because of the intentional act exception, when the coemployee's intentional act is one for which the employer would be vicariously liable to a third party. The court of appeal adopted the views of the treatise commentators, who have pointed out that the intentional act exception is based on personal moral culpability and should apply only to personal (as opposed to vicarious) liability. ³ However, in Rennier v. Johnson, 410 So.2d 1149 (La.App. 3rd Cir.1982), cert. denied, 412 So.2d 1115, the court of appeal for that circuit, interpreting as ambiguous the provision of La.R.S. 23:1032 that "[n]othing in this Chapter shall affect the liability of an employer ... resulting from an intentional act", construed the statute in favor of the employee and permitted the action.

We note that La.R.S. 23:1032 provides for general immunity, but exempts from immunity the liability of an employer or an employee of the employer "resulting from an intentional act", without specifying whose intentional act triggers the exception. Because the statute could be interpreted with equal reasonableness to exempt an employer only for liability resulting from his intentional act, we look to all pertinent considerations to make our determination. ⁴

Except for the provisions of the compensation act at issue in this litigation, an employer is vicariously liable under general tort law for the injury-causing acts of an employee, whether the acts are negligent or intentional. LeBrane v. Lewis, above. Thus, the 1976 amendment which granted general tort immunity from liability, but further provided that nothing shall affect the civil liability of the employer or coemployee resulting from an intentional act, can very reasonably be interpreted as excepting from general immunity any liability of the employer for an intentional act, whether personal or vicarious. ⁵ Moreover, an employer's absolute liability (whether personal or vicarious) for intentionally inflicted injuries could be considered as a possible legislative trade-off for absolute immunity for negligently inflicted injuries.

Finally, the interpretation advocated by the plaintiff (that only nonintentionally injured employees are relegated to compensation benefits) would also provide clarity and consistency. If the injury is caused accidentally, whether by the employer or by a coemployee, then the injured employee can sue only for compensation benefits; but if the injury is caused intentionally, whether by the employer or by a coemployee, then the injured employee can sue in tort.

We conclude that since the first paragraph of La.R.S. 23:1032 provides clearly a rule of general tort immunity under which liability for all nonintentional acts falls within the purview of the compensation act, the second paragraph of the statute should be interpreted to exclude all intentional acts from the general immunity. We further conclude that application of general tort law may make the employer vicariously liable for the intentional acts of the injured employee's coemployee.

Accordingly, the judgments of the...