Follese v. Eastern Airlines

271 N.W.2d 824, 1978 Minn. LEXIS 1180
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedOctober 20, 1978
Docket47532 and 47552
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 271 N.W.2d 824 (Follese v. Eastern Airlines) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Follese v. Eastern Airlines, 271 N.W.2d 824, 1978 Minn. LEXIS 1180 (Mich. 1978).

Opinions

ROGOSHESKE, Justice.

The principal question raised on this certiorari review of a decision of the Workers’ Compensation Court of Appeals denying subject matter jurisdiction of an employee’s claim petition is whether Minnesota has a sufficient governmental interest in the employment relationship of the employer and employee and her out-of-state work-related injuries prior to 1967 to justify application of our workers’ compensation statutes in adjudicating the merits of her claims for medical and disability compensation benefits. We hold on the facts peculiar to this case that there exists a sufficient legitimate governmental interest with respect to the localization of the employer’s business as a qualified insured, the employee’s receipt of public welfare payments, her domicile and nature of her out-of-state residence, the hazard of her being without a remedy, and the nature of her employment relationship, to hear and decide employee’s [827]*827pre-1967 claims under this state’s workers’ compensation laws. We therefore reverse the court of appeals and remand for trial.

These proceedings were instituted by a claim petition filed by Darlene Folíese for compensation benefits arising out of four separate work-related injuries sustained outside of Minnesota during the course of her 8 years of employment as a stewardess with Eastern Airlines, whose home office is Miami, Florida. Employee, then Darlene Hall, age 20, began her employment relationship with Eastern in 1962. Her claims, all of which arose while she was stationed in Miami, may be summarized as follows.

Her first injury, a head injury, occurred in New York’s Idlewild Airport on May 20, 1964. After landing, the plane was taxiing to the terminal when the pilot was compelled to brake suddenly to avoid striking a smaller aircraft. Employee was thrown headlong into a closet in the back of the passenger cabin.

Her second injury occurred July 8, 1965, on a flight originating in Minneapolis-St. Paul and bound for Miami with intermittent stops. While descending over Cincinnati, Ohio, or over Tampa, Florida, the aircraft encountered turbulence and she was thrown about the passenger cabin, injuring her back.

Her third and fourth injuries were back injuries occurring December 17, 1966, and July 5,1968. Both resulted from air turbulence encountered while airborne over Texas in flights originating in Miami bound for Dallas. The record does not reveal whether her third and fourth back injuries were aggravations of her first back injury. At oral argument, counsel stated there was no causal relation between her head injury and back injuries.

Following each of these four injuries, employee received medical treatment by medical personnel at Eastern Airline’s medical clinic in Miami and for short periods of time in various Miami hospitals. For each of these injuries, Florida-incurred medical expenses were voluntarily paid by Eastern’s insurers.1 Although employee reported these injuries to employer, she at no time personally filed any claims for benefits with the Florida Workmen’s Compensation Commission.

She testified that in May 1969 she began to experience blackouts, which, because of their increasing frequency, ultimately required her to resign her employment with Eastern in August 1970. She returned to Minnesota, married Mr. Folíese, a Minnesota resident, and has since resided in this state. Following her termination of employment and return to Minnesota and beginning in June 1970, she has been treated and hospitalized eight times in Minnesota for blackouts and seizures and an addiction to pain killing medicines earlier prescribed for treatment of severe headaches, blackouts, and seizures.2

As indicated by her initial claim petition filed in March 1974, her principal claim is for temporary total and permanent partial disability benefits and medical expenses resulting from her 1964 head injury. Her explanation for the delay in filing her petition is that it was not until December 1973, when she was advised by her doctors that her blackouts' and seizures — diagnosed as [828]*828traumatic epilepsy — were causally related to the 1964 head injury, that she retained counsel to institute these proceedings. Discovery proceedings prompted an amendment to her claim petition in March 1975 to include claims for benefits for the three injuries to her back. She further asserts that any further recovery of benefits in Florida is barred by that state’s statute of limitations, and that Minnesota remains the only forum in which the merits of her claim can be adjudicated. This assertion is neither conceded nor denied by employer’s insurers.3

Upon request of the parties, the compensation judge consented to hear the limited issue of whether Minnesota should assume subject matter jurisdiction over employee’s claims. The judge found upon the evidence submitted that employee was hired on October 12, 1962, pursuant to a “Florida contract of hire” and that Minnesota does not have jurisdiction to hear and decide the merits of employee’s claim except as to her first back injury in 1965, which occurred on a flight originating in this state and referable to Eastern’s business localized in Minnesota. The Workers’ Compensation Court of Appeals, one judge dissenting, observing that it is “a close question as to where the contract of employment was completed,” adopted the compensation judge’s findings and decision. The dissent would deny jurisdiction as to employee’s entire claim on the ground that Florida is the proper jurisdiction to determine those claims. Both employee and employer-insurers appeal.

We are mindful that conflict of law problems concerning extraterritorial application of a state’s compensation laws in cases of out-of-state work-related injuries in industries that, like the airlines, operate interstate and nationwide arise because of the lack of uniformity of state laws and because Congress, except for the railroad industry, has not seen fit to occupy this field of law. Thus, state laws offer the only relief available to an employee injured outside of his residence or domicile.4 It has, however, long been established in this state and in most jurisdictions that a state may, consistent with the requirement of due process and the full faith and credit clauses of the Federal constitution, apply its compensation statutes to afford relief to an employee injured outside its state even though the compensation statutes of a sister state are also applicable. Cook v. Minneapolis Bridge Construction Co., 231 Minn. 433, 43 N.W.2d 792 (1950); Restatement, Conflict of Laws 2d, §§ 181, 182; 4 Larson, Workmen’s Compensation, §§ 85.00, 85.40. Even though Florida’s exercise of jurisdiction pursuant to Fla.Stat. § 440.09(1) appears to be authorized in this case,5 Minnesota may constitutionally assume jurisdiction since the evidence amply establishes that the minimal requirements of full faith and credit and due process clauses are satisfied by this state’s more than casual interest in employee’s claims. Alaska Packers Ass’n v. Industrial Accident Comm., 294 [829]*829U.S. 532, 55 S.Ct. 518, 79 L.Ed. 1044 (1935); Cardillo v. Liberty Mutual Ins. Co., 330 U.S. 469, 67 S.Ct.

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Follese v. Eastern Airlines
271 N.W.2d 824 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1978)

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Bluebook (online)
271 N.W.2d 824, 1978 Minn. LEXIS 1180, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/follese-v-eastern-airlines-minn-1978.