Sanchez v. M.M. Sundt Const. Co.

• Decision Date: 29 August 1985
• Docket Number: No. 7964,7964
• Citation: 1985 NMCA 87,706 P.2d 158,103 N.M. 294
• Parties: Placido SANCHEZ, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Placido Cristobal Sanchez, deceased, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. M.M. SUNDT CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee, and Arizona Public Service Company, Defendant.
• Court: Court of Appeals of New Mexico

Page 158

706 P.2d 158

103 N.M. 294

Placido SANCHEZ, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Placido Cristobal Sanchez, deceased, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. M.M. SUNDT CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee and Arizona Public Service Company, Defendant.

No. 7964.

Court of Appeals of New Mexico.

Aug. 29, 1985.

[103 N.M. 295] Narciso Garcia, Jr., Toulouse, Toulouse & Garcia, Albuquerque, for plaintiff-appellant.

Judy A. Fry, Paul Maestas, Modrall, Sperling, Roehl, Harris & Sisk, P.A., Albuquerque, for defendant-appellee and defendant.

OPINION

ALARID, Judge.

Placido Sanchez (plaintiff) appeals an order dismissing his complaint with prejudice against M.M. Sundt Construction Company (defendant). Plaintiff, as the personal representative of the estate of his son, Placido Cristobal Sanchez (Placido), brought a wrongful death action against defendant and Arizona Public Service Company. The trial court ordered the complaint against defendant dismissed under NMSA 1978, Sections 52-1-8 and -9, of the Workmen's Compensation Act (Act). These sections are the exclusive remedy provisions of the Act. Arizona Public Service Company is not involved in this appeal. We affirm.

FACTS

It is undisputed that (1) Placido was an employee of defendant; (2) he was injured when he fell from an iron beam while performing services during the course and arising out of his employment; (3) he died eight days later on August 8, 1981 as a result of the injuries; (4) defendant was properly insured for workmen's compensation; and (5) Placido was not married and left no eligible dependents under the Act. Plaintiff, at the time of his son's injury and subsequent death, was not dependent upon his son for support or care.

DISCUSSION

Plaintiff contends that Sections 52-1-8 and -9 violate the equal protection clauses of the United States and New Mexico Constitutions when applied to the case of a deceased worker with no eligible dependents under the Act. Section 52-1-8 provides, in pertinent part:

Any employer who has complied with the provisions of the Workmen's Compensation Act [52-1-1 to 52-1-69 NMSA 1978] relating to insurance, or any of the employees of the employer, including management and supervisory employees shall not be subject to any other liability whatsoever for the death of or personal injury to any employee, except as provided in the Workmen's Compensation Act, and all causes of action, actions at law, suits in equity and proceedings whatever, and all statutory and common-law rights and remedies for and on account of such death of, or personal injury to, any such employee and accruing to any and all persons whomsoever, are hereby abolished except as provided in the Workmen's Compensation Act.

Section 52-1-9 provides, additionally, that the right to compensation under the Act is "in lieu of" any other liability. NMSA 1978, Section 52-1-46(A) limits compensation for the death of a worker with no eligible dependents, with certain exceptions, to (1) $1,500 for funeral expenses; (2) the expenses provided for medical and hospital services; and (3) all other amounts which the worker should have been paid for compensation until the time of his death.

Plaintiff argues that because the exclusive remedy provisions limit recovery to the terms of Section 52-1-46(A), and bar a wrongful death action, a deceased workman without eligible dependents is not accorded equal protection of the law with (1) a deceased workman with eligible dependents, or with (2) a tort victim fatally injured outside the course and scope of his employment and, consequently, not subject to the Act. In the first instance, eligible dependents receive compensation benefits for the death, under Section 52-1-46(B)-(F), in addition to the expenses enumerated for non-dependents in subsection (A). In the second instance, the personal representative of a tort victim injured outside the course and scope of his employment may maintain an action for wrongful death under NMSA 1978, Sections 41-2-1 to -3 (Repl.Pamp.1982).

Plaintiff contends that, in the first instance, the classifications set out in Section 52-1-46 violate equal protection because the classifications do not further the purpose of the Act. In the second instance, plaintiff contends that barring non-dependent survivors from pursuing a wrongful death action, while permitting another class of non-dependent plaintiffs to bring such actions, is arbitrary, unreasonable and violative of equal protection. Plaintiff urges this court to fashion an exception to the exclusive remedy provisions, and to permit plaintiff, on this set of facts, to proceed with a wrongful death action.

To demonstrate an equal protection violation, plaintiff must show that the legislation in question is clearly arbitrary and unreasonable, not just that it is possibly so. Gallegos v. Homestake Mining Co., 97 N.M. 717, 643 P.2d 281 (Ct.App.1982). As we stated in Gallegos, "[c]ourts must uphold the efficacy of statutes unless they are satisfied beyond all reasonable doubt that the legislature went outside the Constitution in enacting the challenged legislation." Id. 97 N.M. at 723, 643 P.2d 281. In focusing upon the classification between non-dependent survivors and dependent survivors, and the classification between non-dependent survivors under workmen's compensation and survivors of tort victims outside the scope of workmen's compensation, we inquire into the purpose of the Act and the relationship of the classification to the objective. Id. at 722, 643 P.2d 281; Howell v. Burk, 90 N.M. 688, 568 P.2d 214 (Ct.App.1977). If the purpose or objective of the Act is legitimate and the classification "is rationally related to that objective, it [classification] is not unconstitutionally arbitrary." Gallegos, 97 N.M. at 722, 643 P.2d 281.

"The primary purpose of the Workmen's Compensation Act is to keep an injured workman and his family at least minimally secure financially", Aranda v. Mississippi Chemical Corp., 93 N.M. 412, 416, 600 P.2d 1202, 1206 (Ct.App.1979), and to prevent a workman and his family from becoming public charges. Paternoster v. La Cuesta Cabinets, Inc., 101 N.M. 773, 689 P.2d 289 (Ct.App.1984). The Act, in effect, is designed to supplant the uncertainties of tort remedies and the burden of establishing an employer's negligence with a system of expeditious and scheduled payments of lost wages based on accidental injury or death in the course and scope of employment. Gonzales v. Chino Copper Co., 29 N.M. 228, 222 P. 903 (1924). Within this system, the exclusive remedy provisions represent "a balance between the worker's need for expeditious payment and the employer's need to limit liability [from tort actions]." Kent Nowlin Construction Co. v. Gutierrez, 99 N.M. 389, 390, 658 P.2d 1116, 1117 (1982).

It is clear that the limitation of death benefits embodied in Section 52-1-46(A) is rationally related to the Act's purpose. The scheme of this Act focuses on the welfare of dependent survivors of a deceased workman, and not on the welfare of those...