Rodriguez v. Permian Drilling Corp..

• Decision Date: 19 July 2011
• Docket Number: No. 32,311.,32,311.
• Citation: 150 N.M. 164,2011 -NMSC- 032,258 P.3d 443
• Parties: Pete RODRIGUEZ, Jose Turrubiates, Bill and Norma Corsaut, as guardians of minor children, Draven C. and Devan W., natural children of Eloy Doporto, Jr., deceased, and Mike Lucas, Workers–Petitioners,v.PERMIAN DRILLING CORPORATION and American Home Assurance, Employer–Insurer–Respondents.
• Court: New Mexico Supreme Court

150 N.M. 164

258 P.3d 443

2011 -NMSC- 032

Pete RODRIGUEZ, Jose Turrubiates, Bill and Norma Corsaut, as guardians of minor children, Draven C. and Devan W., natural children of Eloy Doporto, Jr., deceased, and Mike Lucas, Workers–Petitioners,

v.PERMIAN DRILLING CORPORATION and American Home Assurance, Employer–Insurer–Respondents.

No. 32,311.

Supreme Court of New Mexico.

July 19, 2011.

Trenchard & Hoskins, Royce E. Hoskins, Josephine Lue Roswell, NM, Trenchard & Hoskins, Paul G. Tellez, El Paso, TX, Chavez Law Office, Gonzalo Chavez, Roswell, NM, for Petitioners.Butt, Thornton & Baehr, P.C., Carlos G. Martinez, Emily A. Franke, Albuquerque, NM, for Respondents.

OPINION

SERNA, Justice.

{1} This Opinion addresses an exception in the Workers' Compensation Act, NMSA 1978, §§ 52–1–1 to –70 (1987) (as amended through 2006) (the Act), that permits compensation for injuries incurred in travel by employees when those injuries “aris[e] out of and in the course of employment.” Section 52–1–19. Eloy Doporto, Jr.,¹ Mike Lucas, Jose Turrubiates, and Pete Rodriguez (collectively, Workers), oilfield workers employed by Permian Drilling Corporation (Permian), insured by American Home Assurance, were involved in an automobile accident while traveling to their work site, resulting in the death of Doporto and injuries to the others. We conclude that the injuries suffered by Workers arose out of and in the course of their employment because the travel was mutually beneficial to employees and employer and Workers encountered special hazards unique to their employment while traveling, thus rendering Workers “traveling employees” whose injuries are compensable under the Act.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

{2} Our review of the whole record developed before the Workers' Compensation Judge (WCJ) supports the following statement of the factual background. Permian operates mobile drilling rigs throughout southeastern New Mexico and western Texas. The rigs are mobile and are moved to a new location after the drilling of a well is complete, generally every seven to eight days. The drill sites typically are located in rural areas, far from any town, making travel necessary. Crews travel to and from the drill site daily; if the site is extremely remote, however, the drilling company provides lodging. The rigs, operated twenty-four hours a day, are staffed by three crews working eight-hour shifts and a relief crew that replaces the others on their respective days off.

{3} Each crew consists of a driller and three to four crew members. The driller is responsible for hiring and supervising his crew, subject to Permian's approval. The driller is obligated to have a full crew present at the drilling site at the beginning of the shift; an insufficient number of crew members results in an idle rig and imposes a significant financial burden on the company. To meet this responsibility, the industry practice is for drillers to transport their crews to the rig site, though Permian has no written policy requiring such. Permian requires drillers to maintain a valid driver's license and automobile insurance, and compensates the drillers at the rate of twenty-five cents for each mile traveled to a rig site. Individual crew members are not compensated for their travel time, even if they choose to travel individually; they are paid hourly once they begin their scheduled shift. Permian's crews may travel up to 4000 miles per month, or as much as 200 miles per day, to reach the mobile drilling rigs to which they are assigned, though Permian does not dictate the route they must travel nor the mode of transportation.

{4} Workers were members of an oil well drilling crew employed by Permian. Rodriguez, the driller, customarily picked up the members of his crew—Doporto, Lucas, and Turrubiates—at their homes in Hobbs to transport them to the rig site in his vehicle. Rodriguez led weekly safety meetings with his crew on topics that included travel safety. The crew had been working extra shifts in the days prior to the accident. In the early morning of November 10, 2006, Rodriguez picked up his crew at their homes, and they set forth from Hobbs to the rig site, a distance of approximately sixty to seventy miles. The crew stopped at a gas station to fill their water cooler. A short time later, the vehicle was involved in a single-car accident in which Doporto was killed and the others were injured.

{5} Workers filed workers' compensation claims under the Act, arguing that they were traveling employees injured in the course of their employment. Their claims were consolidated before a WCJ. The WCJ bifurcated the trial to decide the issue of compensability before determining benefit entitlements. After a trial on the merits and the submission of proposed findings of fact by each party, the WCJ entered written findings of fact, conclusions of law, and a compensation order. The WCJ concluded that Workers were commuters, that the mileage payments to Rodriguez did not make him a traveling employee, and that the travel to the rig site was “not an incidental or integral part of Workers' employment.” As a result, Workers' claims were dismissed because their injuries did not occur within the course and scope of their employment and thus the injuries were not compensable under the Act.

{6} Workers appealed to the Court of Appeals, which, in a memorandum opinion, upheld the WCJ's dismissal of Workers' claims. Rodriguez v. Permian Drilling Corp., No. 29,435, slip op. at 13, 2010 WL 4060770 (N.M.Ct.App. Mar. 18, 2010). The Court of Appeals concluded that substantial evidence supported the WCJ's conclusion that Rodriguez was not fulfilling a duty of his employment in transporting his crew, id., and that Workers were not traveling employees under the Act when the accident occurred, id. at 12–13.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

{7} “All workers' compensation cases are reviewed under a whole record standard of review.” Moya v. City of Albuquerque, 2008–NMSC–004, ¶ 6, 143 N.M. 258, 175 P.3d 926. As a general matter, we defer to the expertise of the administrative judge and “[w]e will not ... substitute our judgment for that of the agency; although the evidence may support inconsistent findings, we will not disturb the agency's finding if supported by substantial evidence on the record as a whole.” Herman v. Miners' Hosp., 111 N.M. 550, 552, 807 P.2d 734, 736 (1991).

{8} If the facts are largely undisputed, as in this case, whether Workers' injuries are compensable under the Act is a question of law. See Edens v. N.M. Health and Soc. Servs. Dep't, 89 N.M. 60, 62, 547 P.2d 65, 67 (1976); Ramirez v. Dawson Prod. Partners, Inc., 2000–NMCA–011, ¶ 14, 128 N.M. 601, 995 P.2d 1043. “When an agency that is governed by a particular statute construes or applies that statute, the court will begin by according some deference to the agency's interpretation.” Morningstar Water Users Ass'n v. N.M. Pub. Util. Comm'n, 120 N.M. 579, 583, 904 P.2d 28, 32 (1995). The court, however, “is not bound by the agency's interpretation and may substitute its own independent judgment for that of the agency because it is the function of the courts to interpret the law.” Id. Because our review of this case requires us to construe the Act, our primary goal is to give effect to legislative intent. See El Paso Elec. Co. v. N.M. Pub. Regulation Comm'n, 2010–NMSC–048, ¶ 7, 149 N.M. 174, 246 P.3d 443; see also State v. Smith, 2004–NMSC–032, ¶¶ 9–10, 136 N.M. 372, 98 P.3d 1022 (summarizing our canon of statutory construction).

III. ANALYSIS

{9} New Mexico's workers' compensation scheme, codified in the Act, is designed “to compensate workers for injury arising out of and in the course of employment.” Flores v. McKay Oil Corp., 2008–NMCA–123, ¶ 9, 144 N.M. 782, 192 P.3d 777. Claims under the Act are to be resolved with due consideration for the rights of both employees and employers. NMSA 1978, § 52–5–1 (1990). The Act provides the exclusive remedy for an employee to receive compensation for an injury “arising out of and in the course of his employment.” Section 52–1–9(B). This includes

accidental injuries to workers and death resulting from accidental injury as a result of their employment and while at work in any place where their employer's business requires their presence but shall not include injuries to any worker occurring while on his way to assume the duties of his employment or after leaving such duties.

Section 52–1–19. An injury arises out of and in the course of employment if the injury was sustained “during the commission of an activity that is reasonable and foreseeable both as to its nature and manner of commission.” Ramirez, 2000–NMCA–011, ¶ 17, 128 N.M. 601, 995 P.2d 1043; see § 52–1–28(A)(1) & (2) (requiring proof that the injury was “arising out of and in the course of [the] employment” and “reasonably incident to [the] employment”).

{10} The Act excludes injuries incurred by an employee “while on [the] way to assume the duties of ... employment or after leaving such duties,” Ramirez, 2000–NMCA–011, ¶ 7, 128 N.M. 601, 995 P.2d 1043, commonly referred to as the “going and coming” rule. See, e.g., id.; Garcia v. Phil Garcia's Elec. Contractor, Inc., 99 N.M. 374, 376, 658 P.2d 449, 451 (Ct.App.1982). “This rule arises from the recognition that, while admittedly the employment is the cause of the workman's journey between his home and the factory, it is generally taken for granted that workmen's compensation was not intended to protect him against all the perils of that journey.” Ramirez, 2000–NMCA–011, ¶ 7, 128 N.M. 601, 995 P.2d 1043 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). That is, injuries incurred during a commute are not covered under workers' compensation law.

{11} Recognized exceptions to the going and coming rule are numerous; we limit our discussion, however, to the single exception at issue in this appeal, that of the traveling employee. This exception was adopted, and...