Turpin v. Conner Bros. Excavating Co., Inc.
| Decision Date | 21 November 1988 |
| Citation | 761 S.W.2d 296 |
| Court | Tennessee Supreme Court |
| Parties | Ernest D. TURPIN, Plaintiff/Appellee, v. CONNER BROTHERS EXCAVATING COMPANY, INC., Defendant/Appellant. |
Daryl R. Fansler, Carpenter & O'Connor, Knoxville, for defendant/appellant.
J. Michael Lain, McNees, Lain & Roe, Oak Ridge, for plaintiff/appellee.
In this workers' compensation case plaintiff Ernest Turpin, a resident of Anderson County, was injured while working for the defendant, Conner Brothers Excavating Company, Inc., in Knox County. Turpin alleged he was injured in the course of his employment on 9 January 1986. His complaint was filed on 15 June 1987 in Anderson County. The employer was the only entity named as a defendant and was served with process in Knox County.
On 15 September 1987 the defendant filed a motion to dismiss the Anderson County proceedings, alleging that it had no office, agent or director in Anderson County, that the court did not have jurisdiction over the defendant and that venue was improper in the Circuit Court for Anderson County. At the same time defendant and its workers' compensation insurance carrier, Wausau Insurance Company, initiated an action in the Chancery Court for Knox County encompassing the same cause of action.
On 2 October 1987 the plaintiff filed a motion to amend the complaint to add Wausau Insurance Company as a defendant. The cause came on to be heard on 2 November 1987. The court concluded that the motion to dismiss was not well taken and it was overruled. The motion of the plaintiff to add an additional defendant was granted. Permission was granted to file an interlocutory appeal to the this Court in accordance with the provisions of T.R.A.P. 9. The appeal was granted by this Court and we now have the matter for decision.
The defendants raised two (2) issues in their application for permission to appeal. (1) Did venue lie in the Circuit Court of Anderson County for the purposes of this proceeding. (2) After the motion to dismiss was filed could the trial court properly allow an amendment to the complaint to add a new party.
On the first issue we hold that venue was not proper and the Anderson County Court did not attain jurisdiction of the defendant employer. In Sikes v. Colonial Rubber Company, 575 S.W.2d 275 (Tenn.1978) this Court addressed the issue of proper venue for workers' compensation actions. The petitioner in that case filed suit against his employer and its insurance carrier in the county of his residence. Process was served upon the employer in another county, as is the case here, and upon the workers' compensation insurance carrier through the Commissioner of Insurance in accordance with [T.C.A. § 56-2-103(3) ]. The Court said:
"Thus, under [T.C.A. § 50-6-225] venue of a [workers'] compensation action lies in the county in which the petitioner resides, or in the county in which the accident or injury was incurred, but subject to the general rules relating to transitory actions, including the requirement that 'the defendant be servable with process in the county where the suit was brought, as in other civil cases.' "
Applying this rule to the instant case, the employer was not subject to suit in ...
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...type of controversy. See Meighan v. U.S. Sprint Communications Co., 924 S.W.2d 632, 639 (Tenn. 1996); Turpin v. Conner Bros. Excavating Co., 761 S.W.2d 296, 297 (Tenn. 1988). Courts derive their subject matter jurisdiction from the Constitution of Tennessee or from legislative act, see Kane......
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