Stelly v. Overhead Door Co. of Baton Rouge

• Decision Date: 08 December 1994
• Parties: 94-0569 La
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court

Page 905

646 So.2d 905

94-0569 La. 12/8/94

Joseph STELLY and Patsy Stelly v. OVERHEAD DOOR COMPANY OF BATON ROUGE, et al.

No. 94-C-0569.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

Dec. 8, 1994.

Dissenting Opinion of

Chief Justice Calogero Dec. 12, 1994.

Rehearing Denied Feb. 2, 1995.

Patrick C. Morrow, Sr., James S. Gates, Opelousas, for applicant.

Graham N. Smith, Onebane, Donohoe, Bernard, Torian, Diaz, McNamara & Abell Cyd Sheree Page, Voorhies & Labbe, Lafayette, Charles A. Schutte, Jr., Mathews, Atkinson, Guglielmo, Marks & Day, Baton Rouge, H. Douglas Hunter, Guglielmo, Lopez, Tuttle, Hunter & Jarrell, Opelousas, for respondent.

Lawrence S. Kullman, New Orleans, for Louisiana Trial Lawyers Ass'n, amicus curiae.

[94-0569 La. 1] FELICIA TONEY WILLIAMS, Judge Pro Tem. ¹

The issue in this tort action is whether an employee injured at work by a defective condition of the building is prohibited by LSA-R.S. 23:1032 ² from maintaining an unintentional tort action against his employer when the employer contractually assumed the building owner's liability for vices and defects of the premises. The trial court granted the employer's motion for summary judgment based upon LSA-R.S. 23:1032, which provides that an employer is statutorily immune from unintentional tort actions brought by its employees. The court of appeal affirmed. For the reasons which follow, we reverse.

I.

Plaintiff, Joseph Stelly ("Stelly"), was employed as a mechanic by United Parcel Service ("UPS") at its Opelousas Service Center. The building housing the service center was owned by Elvin Ortego ("Ortego") and leased to UPS. By the terms of the lease agreement, UPS assumed all liability for the condition of the leased premises. ³

[94-0569 La. 2] On December 16, 1987, Stelly was injured while in the course and scope of his employment when he attempted to manually raise an overhead door. ⁴ He filed a claim for worker's compensation benefits against UPS, and its worker's compensation insurer, Liberty Mutual Insurance Company ("Liberty Mutual"). He and his wife also filed this tort suit against Ortego, Overhead Door Company of Baton Rouge, Inc. and Overhead Door Corporation. Even though Stelly was receiving worker's compensation benefits, the Stellys amended their tort suit to add as defendants UPS and Overhead Door Company of Acadiana. ⁵ They based their tort claims against UPS upon its contractual assumption of Ortego's liability for any defective condition of the building.

In response to the Stellys' tort suit, UPS filed an exception of no cause of action and of no right of action and, alternatively, a motion for summary judgment. UPS contended that, because Stelly was its employee, the Stelly's were precluded from suing it in tort for a work-related accident. It claimed that a provision of the Worker's Compensation Act, LSA-R.S. 23:1032, shields an employer from any tort action instituted by its employee, except for those based on an intentional tort. The Stellys maintained, however, that because UPS contractually assumed through the terms of its lease agreement, any and all liability of the building owner for any defects in the building, the liability UPS owes its employees extends beyond the statutory limitations of LSA-R.S. 23:1032.

[94-0569 La. 3] Based upon LSA-R.S. 23:1032, the trial court granted UPS's motion for summary judgment. The Stellys appealed. The court of appeal affirmed the judgment and the dismissal of the Stellys' action against UPS, observing that "Louisiana courts have consistently refused to recognize the tort liability of employers under any dual capacity theory or doctrine." Stelly v. Overhead Door Co., 93-278 (La.App. 3 Cir. 2/2/94); 631 So.2d 698, 700. The court of appeal also concluded that the dual capacity doctrine, which the Stellys were attempting to apply, "was specifically and categorically rejected during the 1989 legislative session," by Act 454 of 1989 amending LSA-R.S. 23:1032, 631 So.2d at 702. It specifically disallows any claims by an employee against an employer under any dual capacity doctrine. ⁶ Therefore, although Stelly was injured before the effective date of the act, the court of appeal cited St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co. v. E.R. Smith, 609 So.2d 809 (La.1992), and opined that, because the jurisprudence was consistent in this area prior to enactment of Act 454 of 1989, the act can and should be applied retroactively as interpretive legislation. 631 So.2d at 702.

On the Stellys' application, we granted certiorari ⁷ to determine whether Act 454 of 1989 is interpretative legislation which applies retroactively to the facts of this case and, if not, whether the limitative effects of the pre-amendment version of LSA-R.S. 23:1032 can be interpreted to shield an employer that contractually assumes the liability of an otherwise liable third party, from an unintentional tort action by its injured employee.

II.

When interpreting provisions of the Worker's Compensation Act, the history and policy provisions of the worker's compensation movement must be taken into account. Roberts v. Sewerage and Water Bd. of New Orleans, 92-2048 (La. 3/21/94); 634 So.2d 341, citing 1 W. Malone & H. Johnson, Worker's Compensation, § 35 (13 Louisiana Civil Law Treatise 2d ed. 1980) (hereafter, "Malone & Johnson"). In the early decades of this century, the dominant purpose of the movement to adopt compensation laws was not to abrogate existing tort remedies that afforded protection to workers, but to provide social insurance to compensate victims of industrial accidents. Id. See Boggs v. Blue Diamond Coal Co., 590 F.2d 655 (6th Cir.1979), [94-0569 La. 4] writ den., 444 U.S. 836, 100 S.Ct. 71, 62 L.Ed.2d 47 (1979). Worker's Compensation laws were adopted as a compromise between two contending forces--labor, which generally favored reform, and employers, who generally opposed it. Roberts v. Sewerage and Water Bd. of New Orleans, 634 So.2d at 345. In the compromise, employees exchanged a set of common law remedies of dubious value for modest workers' compensation benefits designed to keep the injured employee and their family from destitution. Roberts v. Sewerage and Water Bd. of New Orleans, 634 So.2d at 345, citing Boggs v. Blue Diamond Coal Co., 590 F.2d at 659. The compromise obligates the employer to surrender its immunity against liability when it was without fault and, in return, the employee loses his right to recover full damages from the employer for his injury and accepts instead a limited sum for compensation. 2 Malone & Johnson, § 361.

In Roberts v. Sewerage and Water Bd. of New Orleans, supra, this court recounted the basic principles our courts should utilize when interpreting the coverage and immunity provisions of our Worker's Compensation Act:

Because workers' compensation benefits have lagged far behind the expansion of liability and the curtailment of tort defenses, courts have responded by liberally construing the coverage provisions of workers' compensation acts while narrowly construing the immunity provisions. This approach has been justified as follows:

(T)here is no strong reason of compensation policy for destroying common law rights ... [and] every presumption should be on the side of preserving those rights, once basic compensation protection has been assured.... The injured employee has a right to be made whole--not just partly whole.... [A]ll the reasons for making the wrong-doer bear the costs of his wrongdoings still apply, including the moral rightness of this result as well as the salutary effect it tends to have as an incentive to careful conduct and safe work practices.

Boggs, 590 F.2d at 660 (quoting 2A Larson, The Law of Workmen's Compensation § 72.50 at 14-95 (1976)). In light of this basic history and policy, we agree with the foregoing authorities that every presumption should be on the side of preserving the general tort or delictual rights of an injured worker against the actual wrongdoer, in the absence of explicitly statutory language limiting or excluding such rights.

634 So.2d at 346. (emphasis added)

We must, therefore, approach the issue presented in this case by liberally construing the coverage provisions of the Worker's Compensation Act, while narrowly construing the immunity provisions.

[94-0569 La. 5] III.

Louisiana's dual capacity theory or doctrine pertains to employers with multiple relationships, connections or involvement to the employee's injury and/or the cause of the injury, which ordinarily would result in liability being imposed upon the employer by operation of law in addition to the provisions of the Worker's Compensation Act. The dual capacity doctrine limits the injured employee's recovery to worker's compensation benefits, precluding the pursuit of their tort claims against their employer. For example, Deagracias v. Chandler, 551 So.2d 25 (La.App. 4th Cir.1989) [the employee attempted to sue his employer in products liability, when he was injured in the course and scope of his employment while using a backhoe bucket manufactured by the employer; the tort suit was rejected based upon the employment status of the claimant]; White v. Naquin, 500 So.2d 436 (La.App. 1st Cir.1986) [the tort suit of a school board employee, injured during the course and scope of employment, against the school board as custodian of the minor student who caused the injury, was rejected based upon the employment status of the claimant]; Wright v. Moore, 380 So.2d 172 (La.App. 1st Cir.1979), writ. den., 382 So.2d 164 (1980) [the employee of the state, injured during the course and scope of employment in a state owned automobile, driven by a state employee on a state roadway, was prohibited from maintaining a tort suit against the state for it being the custodian of the state's roads and highways]. See also 2 W. Malone & H. Johnson, Worker's Compensation, § 386, at 257 (14 Louisiana Civil Law Treatise 3d ed. 1994) (hereafter, "Malone & Johnson 3d ed."). But see Ducote v....