SATILLA COMMUNITY SERVS. BD. v. SATILLA HEALTH SERV., INC.
| Decision Date | 25 November 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. S02G0252.,S02G0252. |
| Citation | 275 Ga. 805,573 S.E.2d 31 |
| Parties | SATILLA COMMUNITY SERVICE BOARD v. SATILLA HEALTH SERVICES, INC. et al. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Whelchel, Brown, Readdick & Bumgartner, Terry L. Readdick, Richard K. Strickland, Brunswick, for appellant.
Hall, Booth, Smith & Slover, Michael G. Frick, Norman D. Lovein, Brunswick, Weinberg, Wheeler, Hudgins, Gunn & Dial, Johnathan T. Krawcheck, Gibson & Spivey, Douglas L. Gibson, Cottingham & Porter, Robert L. Porter Jr., Douglas, Dillard & Crowley, Terry A. Dillard, John R. Thigpen, Sr., Blackshear, W. Grady Pedrick, Waycross, for appellees.
We granted Satilla Community Service Board's (the "Board") petition for certiorari to consider whether the Court of Appeals of Georgia erred by using a principle it labeled "identical reciprocal implied contractual indemnification" to find an implied contractual duty to indemnify and, thereby, avoid the workers' compensation exclusive remedy bar.1 Because we find no support in Georgia law for "identical reciprocal implied contractual indemnification" and the Board was otherwise entitled to summary judgment, we reverse.
Patricia Fields killed Marie Rowell, one of the Board's employees. Fields was a mental health patient of Satilla Health Services, Inc. ("SHS") and Dr. John Michaels. Rowell's estate and child sued C. David Joyner, as the guardian of Fields's property, for wrongful death and pain and suffering.
Joyner filed a third-party claim against SHS and Michaels, alleging Michaels's negligence contributed to Fields's stabbing of Rowell, and SHS was responsible for Michaels's negligence under respondeat superior. SHS and Michaels, in turn, sued the Board as a fourth-party defendant, claiming negligence, breach of a contract between the Board and SHS,2 and a right to contractual indemnification. Joyner, then, filed breach of contract and negligence claims against the Board, contending that Fields was a third-party beneficiary of the contract between the Board and SHS.
The following diagram shows the various claims in this case:
The trial court denied the Board's motion for summary judgment, and the court of appeals reversed in part and affirmed in part, holding that the Board was entitled to summary judgment on the negligence claims, but not on the contract claims. We now examine whether the trial court should have granted summary judgment to the Board on the contract claims, as well.
1. "Workers' compensation is the exclusive remedy of employees against employers for work-related injuries."3 An employer who has paid workers' compensation to one of its employees is immune from liability for claims of contribution and indemnification arising from that employee's tort action, unless there is a contractual, statutory, or special relationship between the employer and the third-party that would require contribution or indemnification.4
Because the Board paid workers' compensation benefits for Rowell's death, it is not obligated to contribute to or indemnify a third-party for damages arising from Rowell's death, absent a contractual, statutory, or special relationship between the Board and that third-party. Here, there is no statutory or special relationship that would require the Board to indemnify SHS or Michaels for damages arising from Rowell's death.
Additionally, the Board is under no contractual obligation to indemnify SHS or Michaels. The contract between the Board and SHS does not expressly require the Board to indemnify SHS or Michaels. Rather, it expressly requires SHS to indemnify the Board without requiring the Board to indemnify SHS. Despite the parties having specifically addressed indemnification obligations in their agreement, the court of appeals found that the Board had an implied duty to indemnify SHS and Michaels, under a theory it labeled "identical reciprocal implied contractual indemnity." The court cited no authority to support this legal principle, and the parties have cited no Georgia case that recognizes such a doctrine. Furthermore, we have found no authority in Georgia law to hold, under the facts of this case, that the Board had an implied obligation to indemnify SHS and Michaels.
Because the Board has neither an express nor implied contractual duty to indemnify SHS and Michaels for any damages arising from Rowell's death, the workers' compensation exclusive remedy doctrine bars their claims for indemnification against the Board. Accordingly, the trial court should have granted the Board summary judgment on SHS and Michaels's claims.
2. Joyner asserts that his claim on behalf of Fields does not seek to hold the Board secondarily liable. Instead, once the Board was added to the action as an impleaded party, Joyner filed a direct claim for breach of contract. After a party has been properly impleaded into an action based on a claim for secondary liability, OCGA §§ 9-11-14 and 9-11-18 permit certain direct claims to be brought against the impleaded party.5
As discussed above, however, the workers' compensation exclusive remedy provision rendered the Board immune from secondary liability, except in a few instances that are not applicable here. Joyner cannot bring a direct claim against the Board because it was not a properly impleaded defendant, and Joyner cannot bring an impleader claim against the Board because he is not seeking to make the Board secondarily liable for any damages Rowell recovers from Joyner.6 Therefore, the trial court should have dismissed without prejudice Joyner's contract claim against the Board. To the extent any of SHS and Michaels's claims can be construed as seeking to hold the Board directly liable, those claims also should be dismissed.
3. In summary, the workers' compensation exclusive remedy provision bars the claims against the Board to the extent those claims seek to hold the Board secondarily liable. Because the Board was not made a party to this action based upon a viable claim for secondary liability, any claims for direct liability cannot be brought under OCGA §§ 9-11-14 and 9-11-18.7 Accordingly, the trial court should have granted the Board summary judgment on SHS and Michaels's claims for secondary liability and dismissed without prejudice Joyner's claims and any of SHS and Michaels's claims that sought direct liability. Because our analysis has resolved all claims that were brought against the Board in this case, we do not need to address the remaining certiorari questions.
Judgment reversed.
All the Justices concur.
I agree that the judgment of the Court of Appeals must be reversed because the Board was entitled to judgment in its favor as a matter of law on the third-party claim and the fourth-party claim against it. I too fail to discern any authority under Georgia law or under the circumstances of this case for preservation of the claims under the crafted theory of "identical reciprocal implied contractual indemnification." But I write separately to address significant questions raised by the flawed analysis of the Court of Appeals, and which were posed for resolution by this Court in granting certiorari.
1. The third-party action brought by Joyner against Dr. Michaels and SHS was plainly pled as one for medical malpractice by virtue of the direct negligence of Dr. Michaels and the imputed negligence of SHS. The pleading was styled as a "Third Party Complaint for Medical Malpractice," alleging that Dr. Michaels failed to exercise that degree of skill and care ordinarily exercised by a psychiatrist generally under like conditions and similar circumstances in providing care for Fields, and that Dr. Michaels's negligence in caring for Fields deprived Fields of treatment that would have reduced her violent behavior, the failure causing Fields to inflict pain and suffering on Rowell and to stab her to death; the action further alleged that SHS was liable to Fields for the negligence of Dr. Michaels under the theory of respondeat superior. Appended to the action was a physician's affidavit pursuant to OCGA § 9-11-9.1, which requires an expert affidavit to accompany an action for damages alleging professional malpractice.
Even though the pleadings contain the cursory statement that Dr. Michaels is liable to Fields for the claims against Fields and the incurred litigation fees, there is no stated basis for the liability other than Dr. Michaels's direct professional negligence. What is more, the third-party claim demands judgment against SHS and Dr. Michaels, not for part or all of the amount of any judgment secured by the plaintiffs against Fields, but instead in an open-ended amount in excess of $10,000.
It has been firmly established that [OCGA § 9-11-14(a) ] authorizes a defendant, as a third-party plaintiff, to file a claim against a third-party defendant for secondary liability on the plaintiff's claim, i.e., a claim for liability over, but not a direct claim for damages.... "...
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