Garcia Ex Rel. Garcia v. Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District

664 P.2d 1000, 99 N.M. 802
CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 12, 1983
Docket5790
StatusPublished
Cited by43 cases

This text of 664 P.2d 1000 (Garcia Ex Rel. Garcia v. Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Garcia Ex Rel. Garcia v. Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, 664 P.2d 1000, 99 N.M. 802 (N.M. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinion

OPINION

DONNELLY, Judge.

The defendants Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District (District) and its insurer, American Manufacturers Mutual Insurance Company (American), appeal from a judgment awarding workmen’s compensation benefits to plaintiff, and her two minor children.

Defendants have raised five issues on appeal: (1) claim of trial court error in awarding workmen’s compensation benefits because plaintiff’s settlement with a third-party tortfeasor bars further recovery under the Workmen’s Compensation Act; (2) claim of error in failing to find that award of additional workmen’s compensation benefits is barred by reason of plaintiff’s remarriage; (3) trial court error in failing to properly credit payment of a lump sum award; (4) trial court error in calculating decedent’s average weekly wage; and (5) excessive attorneys fees. We reverse.

Facts

On March 14, 1979, Joseph R. Garcia, the husband of plaintiff Kathleen Mary Garcia, was killed when the vehicle he was driving was struck by an Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company (Railway) freight train at a railroad crossing near Socorro. At the time of his death, decedent was driving a vehicle owned by his employer, the District, and was carrying out duties in the course and scope of his employment. During their marriage, decedent and plaintiff had two children, Alice Irene Garcia and Jerry Richard Garcia, both minors.

Following the death of decedent, the District and American paid decedent’s medical and funeral expenses and voluntarily commenced paying workmen’s compensation death benefits to plaintiff and the two minor children pursuant to § 52-1 — 46, N.M.S. A.1978. Plaintiff, as a widow and the mother of two minor children was paid weekly benefits in the sum of $156.35 per week from March 19, 1979, to January 19, 1980.

On September 11, 1979, plaintiff, individually and as next friend of her two minor children, filed a wrongful death action in federal court against the Railway seeking damages resulting from the'death of Joseph R. Garcia. Thereafter, on January 19,1980, plaintiff married Lorenzo Rodriguez. Immediately following plaintiff’s marriage, pursuant to § 52-1 — 46(C)(4), supra, American paid plaintiff a lump sum payment consisting of two years compensation benefits totalling $10,975.12, and continued paying workmen’s compensation benefits to the minor children in the amount of $50.82 per week.

On April 7, 1980, plaintiff obtained a divorce from her new husband on the grounds of incompatibility. Within thirty days from the entry of the decree, plaintiff sought to reopen the divorce proceedings, and on May 16, 1980, the district court entered an order setting aside the final decree of divorce and granting an annulment of plaintiff’s marriage on the basis that on January 19, 1980, she “was unable to enter into a valid marriage contract because of temporary mental disability.”

On July 8, 1980, the plaintiff settled the wrongful death suit against the Railway on her own behalf and also on behalf of her two minor children for the sum of $28,-000.00. From the settlement proceeds, plaintiff paid $7,000.00 to American in satisfaction of its right of reimbursement for workmen’s compensation benefits. From the remaining $21,000.00, plaintiff paid her attorney who had brought the suit, (not her counsel herein), and retained the balance of the recovery, approximately $8,500, for herself and her two children.

Several months later, on December 22, 1980, plaintiff, through new counsel, filed suit in her individual capacity and as next friend of her children against the District and American, seeking the payment of additional workmen’s compensation benefits for herself and her two minor children and alleging that defendants had failed and refused to pay compensation benefits due plaintiff.

The answer of the District and American admitted that decedent had been killed while acting in the scope and the course of his employment and that plaintiff and her two children were the widow and surviving minor heirs of decedent. It asserted inter alia that plaintiff was not entitled to additional workmen’s compensation benefits (1) because plaintiff’s remarriage resulted in the payment of a lump sum compromise and settlement as to her benefits and (2) because plaintiff’s settlement of the action individually and on behalf of her two minor children against the Railway, as a third-party tort-feasor, legally barred any additional recovery for her or her children.

Following a trial on the merits, the trial court adopted findings of fact and conclusions of law in favor of plaintiff and entered judgment on April 5, 1982, awarding plaintiff and her children workmen’s compensation benefits payable at the rate of $167.89 per week commencing March 14, 1979 (the date of decedent’s death) and continuing for a period of 600 weeks. Plaintiff was awarded attorney’s fees in the sum of $4,680.00. The court further determined that defendants should have paid compensation in the sum of $25,855.00, through February, 1982, and that after crediting defendants with payment of the sum of $22,743.28, including the $10,975.12 paid to the plaintiff by defendants as a lump sum settlement upon her remarriage, $3,111.72, was still owing to plaintiffs as of February 28, 1982.

Effect of Third Party Settlement

Defendants assert that the trial court erred in failing to find plaintiff’s settlement of the wrongful death action against the Railway barred plaintiff’s claim for further workmen’s compensation benefits against defendants. Although acknowledging that the rule enunciated in Britz v. Joy Mfg. Co., 97 N.M. 595, 642 P.2d 198 (Ct.App.1982), cert. quashed, 98 N.M. 51, 644 P.2d 1040, 1982, militates against the decision of the trial court herein, plaintiff argues that Britz should be overruled and we should adopt a different rule that would permit her and her children to receive workmen’s compensation benefits despite plaintiff’s recovery of damages against the Railway, unless there is a showing that the workman or his dependents have obtained a double recovery or that the workman or his heirs have prejudiced the right of the employer or compensation carrier to a right of reimbursement.

The decision in Britz v. Joy Mfg. Co., supra, is dispositive of the instant appeal. There the court held:

The law in New Mexico is clear that having recovered from a third party tortfeasor, a workman is barred from receiving workmen’s compensation benefits. Section 52—1—56(C), [N.M.S.A.1978]; White v. New Mexico Highway Commission, 42 N.M. 626, 83 P.2d 457 (1938); Thomas v. Barber's Super Markets, Inc., 74 N.M. 720, 398 P.2d 51 (1964). Where a claimant has sought relief from a third party the amount of the recovery is for the full loss or detriment suffered by the injured party and makes him financially whole, and thus any subsequent compensation claim is barred. Castro v. Bass, 74 N.M. 254, 392 P.2d 668 (1964); Seminara v. Frank Seminara Pontiac-Buick, Inc., 95 N.M.

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664 P.2d 1000, 99 N.M. 802, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/garcia-ex-rel-garcia-v-middle-rio-grande-conservancy-district-nmctapp-1983.