Dean Winnfield v. Indemnity Insurance Company of North America and RXO Capacity Solutions, LLC (improperly named)

CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 7, 2025
Docket2025 CA 0407
StatusUnknown

This text of Dean Winnfield v. Indemnity Insurance Company of North America and RXO Capacity Solutions, LLC (improperly named) (Dean Winnfield v. Indemnity Insurance Company of North America and RXO Capacity Solutions, LLC (improperly named)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dean Winnfield v. Indemnity Insurance Company of North America and RXO Capacity Solutions, LLC (improperly named), (La. Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

STATE OF LOUISIANA

FIRST CIRCUIT

2025 CA 0407

113 W.- Imylkyj 10101 w 101 a 11

VERSUS

INDEMNITY INSURANCE COMPANY OF NORTH AMERICA AND

RXO CAPACITY SOLUTIONS, LLC (IMPROPERLY NAMED) Judgment Rendered, NOV 0 7 2025

Appealed from the Office of Workers' Compensation, District 5 In and for the Parish of East Baton Rouge State of Louisiana Case No. 21- 05961

Honorable Jason Ourso, Judge Presiding

Brian D. Calvit Counsel for Plaintiff/Appellant Baton Rouge, Louisiana Dean Winnfield

Eric E. Pope Counsel for Defendants/ Appellees Megan C. Gladner Indemnity Insurance Company Metairie, Louisiana of North America and RXO

Capacity Solutions, LLC

BEFORE: LANIER, WOLFE AND HESTER, JJ. LANIER, J.

Plaintiff, Dean Winfield,' appeals the summary judgment rendered by the

Office of Workers' Compensation, District S ( OWC) in favor of the defendants,

Indemnity Insurance Company of North America ( Indemnity) and 28277 RXO

Capacity Solutions, LLC ( RXO), and dismissing Mr. Winfield' s claims against

them with prejudice. The defendants have also filed an answer to Mr. Winfield' s

appeal. For the following reasons, we affirm the judgment of the OWC, and

dismiss the answer to the appeal.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On November 2, 2021, Mr. Winfield filed a disputed claim for compensation

against his employer RXO, which at the time was named XPO Logistics Freight

Inc.2 ( XPO), and Indemnity. Mr. Winfield claimed his jaw and neck were injured

on December 18, 2020, while in the course and scope of his employment with

RXO. He alleged that while he was hooking up a trailer, the crank to the trailer' s

landing gear kicked back and struck him, fracturing his chin and jaw, and injuring

his neck as well. Mr. Winfield claimed that following the injury, the defendants

had not paid him any wage benefits, nor had they authorized any medical

treatment.

In their answer, the defendants denied that Mr. Winfield had reported an

injury to them, and also denied that he was employed by RXO at the time of the

injury. The defendants acknowledged that compensation benefits had not been

paid to Mr. Winfield. The defendants filed a motion for summary judgment on

July 28, 2022, again claiming that Mr. Winfield was not an employee of RXO at

the time of the accident, but instead was an independent contractor/owner- operator.

I The plaintiff writes and spells his name as " Winfield."

2 For simplicity, this defendant will be referred to as RXO throughout the opinion.

2 In their supporting memorandum, the defendants stated that Mr. Winfield was the

owner -operator of his own truck, and that on June 6, 2017, he had entered into a

lease agreement with M& P Trucking LLC ( M& P) to transport cargo. The

defendants claimed that M& P was responsible for issuing paychecks to Mr.

Winfield, although he primarily transported cargo for RXO between 2018 and

2020.

The defendants further claimed that Mr. Winfield reported his injury to

M& P, who informed him that he was not covered by workers' compensation.

M& P had Mr. Winfield complete an occupational accident form for Midlands

Insurance ( Midlands), with M& P named as his sponsor. The defendants alleged

that they were never made aware of Mr. Winfield' s injury until they were served

with his disputed claim for compensation.

In his memorandum in opposition, Mr. Winfield stated that RXO' s

dispatcher directed him to the Purina Mills Plant in Roseland, Louisiana, where the

accident occurred. He further stated that on June 6, 2017, he entered into a written

agreement with M& P and its owner, Moses Weary, to transport cargo under

M& P' s authority. M& P was subsequently sold by Mr. Weary, who stayed on as

M& P' s dispatcher. The written agreement between Mr. Winfield and M& P

terminated in 2018, at which time he began transporting cargo exclusively for

RXO. RXO would not pay Mr. Winfield directly, but would issue payment to

M& P, who then paid Mr. Winfield. Mr. Winfield argued that he was never

identified by RXO as an independent contractor, that RXO controlled the time,

order, and location of all deliveries, that his contract with M& P became

inoperative once he began transporting cargo exclusively for RXO, and that his

routine duties with RXO did meet the " manual labor" exception.

3 On November 1, 2022, the OWC signed a judgment denying the defendants'

motion for summary judgment.' On June 27, 2023, Mr. Winfield filed a first

supplemental and amended petition, naming RXO as a defendant in place of XPO.

On June 27, 2024, the defendants filed another motion for summary judgment with

the same allegations that were made in the previous motion for summary judgment.

In their supporting memorandum, the defendants stated that at the time of the

accident, Mr. Winfield had executed an agreement where he had requested

coverage under the Independent Contractor Program and verified he was an

independent contractor for M& P. The defendants further claimed that Mr.

Winfield received income replacement and medical benefits through this

agreement.

In his opposition memorandum, Mr. Winfield stated that on February 2,

2018, he executed a motor carrier transportation agreement with M& P and RXO.

Mr. Weary signed the agreement as the " owner" of M& P, although he was no

longer the owner of M& P at that time. Mr. Winfield stated that once he began

transporting cargo exclusively for RXO, Mr. Weary was not RXO' s dispatcher, all

instructions as to loading and unloading came from RXO' s own dispatcher, and

that RXO would pay him through M& P.

On September 3, 2024, the OWC signed a judgment granting " the

Defendant' s Motion for Summary Judgment" for reasons expressed in open court.

Mr. Winfield filed a devolutive appeal of that judgment. The defendants filed an

answer to the appeal, in which they sought attorney fees and costs related to their

defense of the instant appeal. On June 5, 2025, this court issued a rule to show

cause order, due to the September 3, 2024 judgment appearing to lack appropriate

decretal language for failing to name specific parties to whom the ruling was in

3 Reasons for the denial are not given in the record.

M favor or against, and for failing to identify any relief that was awarded. See La.

C. C. P. art. 1918( A).

Through an interim order issued August 21, 2025, this court remanded the

instant matter for the limited purpose of inviting the OWC to issue an amended

judgment that corrected the aforementioned deficiencies of the September 3, 2024

judgment. On September 15, 2025, the OWC supplemented the record with an

amended judgment, signed August 20, 2025, in which the OWC granted summary

judgment in favor of both the defendants, RXO and Indemnity, and against Mr.

Winfield, finding that he was an independent contractor and not an employee of

RXO, and dismissing his disputed claim for compensation against both defendants

with prejudice.

We find that this amended judgment meets the requirements of La. C. C. P.

arts. 1841, 1918( A), and 1951, and therefore we maintain the appeal. See D' Luca

v. Kirkland, 2020- 0713, 0714 ( La. App. 1 Cir. 2/ 19/ 21), 321 So. 3d 411, 413- 14;

Rathe v. Rathe, 2017- 1326 ( La. App. 1 Cir.

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Dean Winnfield v. Indemnity Insurance Company of North America and RXO Capacity Solutions, LLC (improperly named), Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dean-winnfield-v-indemnity-insurance-company-of-north-america-and-rxo-lactapp-2025.