Thomas v. Dep't Of Dev.Al Serv.

• Decision Date: 13 July 2010
• Docket Number: No. 18458.,18458.
• Citation: 999 A.2d 682,297 Conn. 391
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: Janice THOMASv.DEPARTMENT OF DEVELOPMENTAL SERVICES et al.

297 Conn. 391

999 A.2d 682

Janice THOMASv.DEPARTMENT OF DEVELOPMENTAL SERVICES et al.

No. 18458.

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

Argued Feb. 23, 2010.

July 13, 2010.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Christopher D. DePalma, New Haven, for the appellant (plaintiff).

Yinxia Long, assistant attorney general, with whom, on the brief, were Richard Blumenthal, attorney general, and Philip Schulz, assistant attorney general, for the appellee (named defendant).

ROGERS, C.J., and NORCOTT, KATZ, PALMER, VERTEFEUILLE, ZARELLA and McLACHLAN, Js.^*

ZARELLA, J.

The issue in this workers' compensation appeal is whether the statutory lien provision contained in General Statutes § 31-293(a) ¹ entitles an employer to a credit for unknown, future workers' compensation benefits that it may become obligated to pay to an injured employee in the amount of the net proceeds that the injured employee has received from a judgment against or settlement with a third party tortfeasor. The plaintiff, Janice Thomas, appeals from the decision of the compensation review board (board), which reversed the decision of the workers' compensation commissioner for the eighth district (commissioner) and concluded that the statutory lien provision entitles employers to such a credit. The plaintiff claims that the board improperly interpreted the statutory lien provision as applying to future workers' compensation benefits and that the correct interpretation limits the scope of the lien to the amount of benefits paid by the employer to the injured employee up to the date of recovery from the third party. The named defendant, the department of developmental services,² responds that the board correctly concluded that the statutory lien provision includes a right to a credit for future workers' compensation benefits in light of the lien provision's context and prior case law interpreting § 31-293(a). We agree with the defendant and, therefore, affirm the decision of the board.

The record reflects the following relevant facts and procedural history. On January 29, 2004, the plaintiff, an employee of the defendant at all relevant times, sustained various injuries when she fell on an icy walkway leading to her workplace. As a result of these injuries, the plaintiff filed a claim for workers' compensation benefits, which the defendant initially accepted. ³ In addition, the plaintiff asserted a third party liability claim pursuant to § 31-293(a). The plaintiff did not, however, file an action in connection with her third party claim because she opted, instead, to negotiate her claim with the third party's insurance carrier. The defendant did not file an action against the third party either. Rather, the defendant issued a letter to the plaintiff's counsel indicating that it was claiming a lien, pursuant to § 31-293(a), against the proceeds from the plaintiff's third party claim and documenting that the defendant then had paid $2523.43 in workers' compensation benefits to or on behalf of the plaintiff.⁴

On November 1, 2005, the plaintiff settled her third party claim in the amount of $45,000. After deducting attorney's fees and costs, and reimbursing the defendant for the then outstanding lien of $2523.43, the plaintiff netted $24,713.37 from the third party settlement. Following the settlement, the parties disputed the scope of the defendant's lien. At a hearing before the commissioner, the defendant claimed that its lien entitled it to a credit for unknown, future workers' compensation benefits that it may become obligated to pay to the plaintiff in the full amount of the plaintiff's net proceeds from the third party settlement. The plaintiff opposed the claim, arguing that the scope of the lien provision of § 31-293(a) did not encompass such a credit.

On November 14, 2007, the commissioner ruled in favor of the plaintiff. The commissioner noted that § 31-293(a) creates separate rights of subrogation and rights to establish a lien, and the lien provision is silent with respect to the issue of whether an employer is entitled to a credit for future workers' compensation benefits that it may become obligated to pay to a claimant. On the basis of the foregoing and, in the words of the commissioner, a “strict construction of [§] 31-293 ... and applicable case law,” the commissioner concluded that the defendant was not entitled to such a credit for future workers' compensation benefits.

The defendant appealed from the commissioner's decision to the board, which reversed the commissioner's decision. In its decision of October 22, 2008, the board acknowledged that the lien provision was silent with respect to its scope; the board concluded, however, that it could discern its meaning by reading the lien provision in light of § 31-293(a) as a whole. Viewing the lien provision in this light, and considering the public policy discouraging a claimant's double recovery, the board concluded that the defendant's lien encompassed the entire amount of the plaintiff's net proceeds from the third party settlement and that such proceeds were to be credited against future workers' compensation benefits that the defendant may become obligated to pay to the plaintiff. This appeal followed.⁵

On appeal, the plaintiff claims that the statutory lien provision in § 31-293(a) is ambiguous because the provision is silent with respect to its scope and is susceptible to more than one reasonable interpretation. The plaintiff argues that the language in the lien provision reasonably can be interpreted as applying to only those benefits that an employer has paid to date, and not to unknown, future benefits. Specifically, the plaintiff contends that, because the language in the lien provision does not mirror the language in that portion of § 31-293(a) defining an employer's “claim,” which term previously has been interpreted to include unknown, future benefits; see Enquist v. General Datacom, 218 Conn. 19, 20-21, 26, 587 A.2d 1029 (1991); the lien provision should not be interpreted in a like manner. The plaintiff further argues that the notion that a double recovery necessarily arises whenever a claimant settles with a third party tortfeasor is “fundamentally flawed,” and, therefore, the public policy disfavoring double recoveries should not be invoked in the present case. Finally, in light of the fact that this court has not yet interpreted the scope of an employer's rights under the lien provision, the plaintiff argues that the defendant has waived any claim that it might have to a credit for future workers' compensation benefits because it was “less than vigilant” in protecting its rights by taking the less prudent and easier course of action of merely sending a letter of notification of the lien, rather than filing an action directly against the third party tortfeasor.

The defendant responds that the board correctly concluded that the statutory lien provision includes a right to a credit for future workers' compensation benefits on the basis of sound statutory construction principles, including that the lien provision must be read in context and in light of case law interpreting § 31-293(a). The defendant further claims that the board's interpretation is supported by the legislative history and comports with the legislature's goals of cutting the costs of the workers' compensation program and avoiding double recoveries by injured employees. Lastly, the defendant asserts that the plaintiff's interpretation of the lien provision is untenable because it flows from the plaintiff's position that the provision must be read separately from the rest of § 31-293(a), and would lead to absurd results. We affirm the decision of the board.

“Under our well established standard of review, [w]e have recognized that [a]n agency's factual and discretionary determinations are to be accorded considerable weight by the courts.... Cases that present pure questions of law, however, invoke a broader standard of review than is ordinarily involved in deciding whether, in light of the evidence, the agency has acted unreasonably, arbitrarily, illegally or in abuse of its discretion.... We have determined, therefore, that ... deference ... to an agency's interpretation of a statutory term is unwarranted when the construction of a statute ... has not previously been subjected to judicial scrutiny [or to] ... a governmental agency's time-tested interpretation....” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Harpaz v. Laidlaw Transit, Inc., 286 Conn. 102, 108-109, 942 A.2d 396 (2008).

Neither this court nor the Appellate Court has examined the scope of the statutory lien provision contained in § 31-293(a). In addition, the board did not indicate that it had applied a time-tested interpretation of the statute in its decision. “Accordingly, we do not defer to the board's construction and exercise plenary review in accordance with our well established rules of statutory construction.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Id., at 109, 942 A.2d 396.

“The process of statutory interpretation involves the determination of the meaning of the statutory language as applied to the facts of the case, including the question of whether the language does so apply.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Saunders v. Firtel, 293 Conn. 515, 525, 978 A.2d 487 (2009). “In seeking to determine [the] meaning [of a statute], General Statutes § 1-2z directs us first to consider the text of the statute itself and its relationship to other statutes. If, after examining such text and considering such relationship, the meaning of such text is plain and unambiguous and does not yield absurd or unworkable results, extratextual evidence of the meaning of the statute shall not be considered.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Id. “When a statute is not plain and unambiguous, we also look for interpretive guidance to the legislative history and circumstances surrounding its enactment, to the legislative policy it was designed to implement, and to its...