Williams v. Schwartz

• Decision Date: 30 August 1976
• Citation: 61 Cal.App.3d 628,131 Cal.Rptr. 200
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: Jeanette WILLIAMS, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. R. J. SCHWARTZ and Schwartz Logging Company, Defendants and Respondents. Civ. 15168.

Page 200

131 Cal.Rptr. 200

61 Cal.App.3d 628

Jeanette WILLIAMS, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. R. J. SCHWARTZ and Schwartz Logging Company, Defendants and Respondents.

Civ. 15168.

Court of Appeal, Third District, California.

Aug. 30, 1976.

David Emery Otis, Mt. Shasta, for plaintiff-appellant.

Tocher & Gazzigli, Redding, for defendants-respondents.

PUGLIA, Presiding Justice.

Plaintiff witnessed the death of her husband in an accident which occurred in the course of his employment with the Schwartz Logging Company ('employer'). After recovering workers' compensation benefits for her husband's death, plaintiff filed this action against the employer and other parties for the emotional distress which she suffered as a result of the incident. ¹ The employer demurred in reliance on Labor Code provisions which make workers' compensation proceedings the exclusive remedy for work-connected injury or death. The trial court sustained the demurrer with leave to amend. Plaintiff elected to stand on her complaint and a judgment of dismissal was entered from which she appeals. Plaintiff contends that the exclusive remedy provisions of the Labor Code do not preclude independent actions by nonemployees for their personal damages flowing from an employee's work-connected injury or death.

Plaintiff's complaint alleges that her husband, while in the course and scope of his employment with Schwartz Logging Company, parked his employer's truck on the Flume Creek Bridge situated near Interstate Highway 5 in Shasta County. While he was standing along side the truck, the gridge collapsed. Plaintiff's husband plummeted from the bridge and was crushed by the truck, sustaining fatal injuries. All these events took place in the presence of and were observed by plaintiff. Plaintiff alleges the bridge collapsed as a result of negligence of the various defendants in the construction, maintenance and inspection thereof.

In ruling on the employer's demurrer, the trial court opined that under the rule of Dillon v. Legg (1968) 68 Cal.2d 728, 69 Cal.Rptr. 72, 441 P.2d 912, ² plaintiff appeared to have stated a cause of action for negligent infliction of emotional distress. However, it concluded that the exclusive remedy provisions of the workers' compensation law barred plaintiff's action for her own injuries resulting from the work-related death of her husband. The sole issue presented by this appeal is whether the provisions of the Labor Code, making workers' compensation proceedings the exclusive remedy for work-connected injuries or fatalities, bar a cause of action for emotional distress suffered by a relative who witnesses a fatal injury to an employee covered by the workers' compensation law.

The exclusive nature of the remedy provided by the workers' compensation law for work-connected injury or death is expressed in three separate Labor Code provisions. Labor Code section 3600 ³ provides that liability thereunder is 'in lieu of any other liability whatsoever to any person' (except in cases under § 3706 which is inapplicable here). Section 3601, subdivision (a), provides that 'Where the conditions of compensation exist, the right to recover such compensation, pursuant to the provisions of this division is . . . the exclusive remedy for injury or death of an employee against the employer . . ..' Section 5300, subdivision (a), declares that proceedings 'For the recovery of compensation, or concerning any ritht or liability arising out of or incidental thereto' shall be instituted before the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board and not elsewhere.

In sustaining the employer's demurrer, the trial court relied upon Gillespie v. Northridge Hosp. Foundation (1971) 20 Cal.App.3d 867, 98 Cal.Rptr. 134, wherein section 3600 was construed to bar a husband's action against his wife's employer for the loss of her services resulting from a work-related injury covered by workers' compensation. ⁴ 'The whole scheme of workmen's compensation contemplates that in exchange for imposing on the employer a liability without fault and denying to him the common law defenses of contributory negligence and the fellow servant rule, he is assured of a single liability, limited by a statutory scheme, which provides for medical expenses and which allots a scheduled sum in lieu of both lost earnings and general damages. We can see no reason why the employer should also be held liable for collateral damages to third persons whose rights, at common law, were derivative from those of the employee.' (P. 870, 98 Cal.Rptr. p. 136.)

The Gillespie court adopted the reasoning of decisions from other jurisdictions to the effect that the workers' compensation laws were intended to provide a complete and all-inclusive scheme of recovery for industrial injuries to employees. "It would be anomalous to hold that the employer is under no liability in tort to a married employee but is liable in tort to her husband for the consequences to him of the tortious injury to his wife. ( ) When the employer and employee elect to have their rights adjudged and fixed pursuant to the terms of the compensation act then the common law remedy in tort falls by reason of the statutory contract for compensation, based not upon the principle of tort but on remuneration regardless of fault to the injured employee. . . ." (20 Cal.App.3d at pp. 870--871, 98 Cal.Rptr. at p. 136, quoting from Danek v. Hommer (1952) 9 N.J. 56, 59--60, 87 A.2d 5, 7.)

Plaintiff seeks to distinguish Gillespie on the basis that the cause of action there was a 'derivative' one for loss of consortium, whereas the present cause of action is based upon an invasion of independent interests of the employee's spouse falling within the scope of Dillon v. Legg, supra. Plaintiff construes the preemptive provisions of the Labor Code as affecting only those 'derivative' actions by an employee's dependents based on injuries incurred Solely by the employee himself.

Plaintiff's attempted distinction rests on a fallacious premise. In Rodriguez v. Bethlehem Steel Corp. (1974) 12 Cal.3d 382, 115 Cal.Rptr. 765, 525 P.2d 669, the Supreme Court overturned a judicially evolved rule that precluded a spouse's recovery for loss of consortium caused by a tortious injury to the other spouse. In doing so, the Court implicitly rejected the notion that a spouse's action for loss of consortium is merely a derivative one which seeks to redress an injury principally incurred by the other spouse. The Court recognized that loss of consortium is a form of mental suffering and involves a deprivation of interest which are personal to the spouse who brings suit and not merely collateral to those of the other spouse. ⁵ (Id., at pp. 399, 401, 405, 115 Cal.Rptr. 765, 525 P.2d 669.) Accordingly, when a husband or wife is deprived of the multitude of interests comprising the concept of consortium, 'the loss is (his or) here alone.' (Id., at p. 406, 115 Cal.Rptr. (765), at p. 780, 525 P.2d (669), at p. 684.)

In any event, the broad, inclusive language of the workers' compensation law itself precludes not only so-called derivative actions based solely upon injuries to a covered employee, but 'any other liability whatsoever to any person . . . for any injury sustained by (an employee) arising out of and in the course of the employment and for the death of any employee if the injury proximately causes death, . . . (Lab.Code, § 3600.) Section 3601, subdivision (a), declares that 'Where the conditions of compensation exist, the right to recover such compensation . . . is . . . the exclusive remedy for injury or death of an employee against the employer . . ..' The pervasive nature of these provisions was acknowledged in a recent opinion: 'It has been consistently held, without exception, that section 3601 means precisely what its terms imply. It is said that: 'When an employee's injuries or death are compensable under the Workmen's Compensation Act, the right of the employee or his dependents, as the case may be, to recover such compensation is the exclusive remedy against the employer. (Citations.) In the most explicit terms, section 3600 declares the exclusive character of the employer's workmen's compensation liability in lieu of any Other liability to Any person. Sections 3600 and 3601 form a complementary, unmistakable...