Li v. C.N. Brown Co.

645 A.2d 606, 9 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 1404, 1994 Me. LEXIS 147

• Court: Supreme Judicial Court of Maine
• Decided: July 26, 1994
• Status: Published

Opinions

CLIFFORD, Justice.

Plaintiff Lisa A. Li, in her capacity as. personal representative of the Estate of Melissa Roy, appeals from a summary judgment entered in the Superior Court (Androscoggin County, Alexander, J.) in favor of defendant, C.N. Brown Company. The court concluded that the immunity and exclusivity provisions of the Workers’ Compensation Act in effect at the time of Roy’s death, 39 M.R.S.A. §§ 4, 28 (1989), barred the action. Li contends on appeal that employers should be held liable for work-related injuries to employees caused by intentional acts. Li also argues that C.N. Brown should be held Hable under the dual persona doctrine. We affirm the judgment.

According to Li’s complaint, on September 19, 1990, C.N. Brown was informed by the Lewiston Police Department that a former employee planned to commit an armed robbery of their Big Apple convenience store on Main Street in Lewiston. C.N. Brown did not dose the store, where Roy was working alone, and the store was robbed. Roy was stabbed repeatedly, and she died from her injuries.

Li filed a complaint alleging that, as Roy’s employer, C.N. Brown had intentionally and negHgently caused her death and her pain and suffering. C.N. Brown filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that because Roy was an employee of C.N. Brown, because her death occurred during the course of her employment, and because C.N. Brown had procured workers’ compensation insurance, Roy’s estate was barred from recovering damages in a civil action. The Superior Court granted C.N. Brown’s motion for summary judgment, and Li appeals from that judgment.

In an appeal from a summary judgment for the defendant, we give the plaintiff the benefit of all favorable inferences that may be drawn from the record and determine if the trial court committed an error of law. Estate of Althenn v. Althenn, 609 A.2d 711, 714 (Me.1992); see Fanion v. McNeal, 677 A.2d 2, 3 (Me.1990).

I.

The exclusivity and immunity provisions of the Workers’ Compensation Act bar employees from pursuing civil litigation against their employers for injuries incurred in the course of employment. 39 M.R.S.A. §§ 4, 28 (1989).¹ The wording of these sections is broad and encompassing, exempting an insured employer from civil actions involving employee injuries and deeming the employee to have waived the right to sue the employer for injuries incurred in the course of employment. The legislative intent in enacting a comprehensive workers’ compensation statute was to “‘giv[e] effect to the underlying policy of providing certainty of remedy to the injured employee and absolute but limited and determinate liability for the employer.’ ” Beverage v. Cumberland Farms N., Inc., 502 A.2d 486, 489 (Me.1985) (quoting McKellar v. Clark Equip. Co., 472 A.2d 411, 414 (Me.1984)).

Li contends that the exclusivity and immunity provisions of the Workers’ Compensation Act do not apply to employers’ intentional torts, arguing that the Act was never intended to address intentional torts. Li also contends that an exception to exclusivity and immunity is warranted for employers’ actions that intentionally place employees in harm’s way. We find nothing in the language of the Act to support such contentions, and we decline to create a judicial exception to the exclusivity and immunity provisions for employers’ intentional torts.

The language of the Act does not support Li’s argument that the workers’ compensation statute in effect at the time of Roy’s death was not intended to apply to workplace injuries resulting from intentional torts. The workers’ compensation statute no longer requires injuries to have been accidental to fall within the scope of the Act. See, e.g., P.L. 1973, ch. 389 (legislature deleted the words “by accident” from the statute). The Act applies to all work-related injuries and deaths, however caused, not just accidental injuries and deaths.

Li argues that if injuries or deaths resulting from intentional acts are covered by the Act, employers would be allowed to engage in misconduct without being held financially responsible; such a statutory framework would permit employers to make investment decisions to harm their own workers. See Beauchamp v. Dow Chem. Co., 427 Mich. 1, 398 N.W.2d 882, 889 (1986); Blankenship v. Cincinnati Milacron Chem., Inc., 69 Ohio St.2d 608, 615, 433 N.E.2d 572, 579 (1982). We are unpersuaded that such a possibility should lead us to ignore the plain language of the Workers’ Compensation Act. Criminal sanctions are available when an employer’s behavior is egregious. If the legislature had intended employers to forfeit a part of their immunity from civil liability for injuries in tort suits, it easily could have created an intentional tort exception to the workers’ compensation exclusivity and immunity provisions.

Although narrow intentional tort exceptions to workers’ compensation coverage exist in a number of jurisdictions, those exceptions frequently have been created by statutory change, or are based on “accidental injury” language in workers’ compensation statutes. See 2A A. Larson, The Law of Workmen’s Compensation § 68.11 (1987); 101 C.J.S Workmen’s Compensation § 926(a) (1958). The creation of such an exemption in this state is best left to the legislature. See Fanion, 577 A.2d at 4.

We have been reluctant to engraft common law rules onto the uniquely statutory scheme of workers’ compensation law. American Mut. Ins. Co. v. Murray, 420 A.2d 251, 252 (Me.1980). The workers’ compensation statute was established by the legislature in response to its dissatisfaction with the efficacy of judicial solutions to the problems of remedies for workplace accidents. Id. In keeping with the purpose of the Workers’ Compensation Act, we have construed broadly both the exclusivity and immunity provisions of the Act. See Fanion, 577 A.2d at 4 (refusing to create exception for illegally employed minors injured in the course of employment). If an employer subject to the Workers’ Compensation Act secures the payment of workers’ compensation, its employees are barred from suing that employer- for damages for work-related injuries. Beverage, 502 A.2d at 489 (employee unable to bring civil action against employer under Employer Liability Law for damages arising from rape on work premises). In the absence of legislative changes in the Act, we decline to narrow the heretofore broadly construed workers’ compensation exclusivity and immunity provisions.

In this case, C.N. Brown had secured payment of workers’ compensation pursuant to the Workers’ Compensation Act. Therefore, Li, as the personal representative of Roy’s estate, is barred by sections 4 and 28 of the Act from pursuing civil litigation against C.N. Brown for its negligent or intentional conduct resulting in Roy’s injuries and death.²

II.

Li also asserts that C.N. Brown should be held liable for Roy’s death under the dual persona doctrine, alleging that C.N. Brown had an independent duty to Roy as the owner of the building in which she worked. To be liable as a third party under the dual persona doctrine, an otherwise exempt employer must have a second persona so independent from its status as an employer that it constitutes a separate legal entity and creates a second set of obligations to the employee completely distinct from the duties of employment. Hatch v. Lido Co. of New England, 609 A.2d 1155, 1156 (Me.1992). Li has not alleged in her complaint that C.N. Brown maintained a separate legal identity that owned the premises where Roy was killed. Thus, the dual persona doctrine cannot be invoked to create tort liability against C.N. Brown in this instance.

The entry is:

Judgment affirmed.

WATHEN, C.J., ROBERTS, RUDMAN and DANA, JJ., and COLLINS, A.R.J., concurring.

1 . 39 M.R.S.A. § 4 (1989), in effect at the time of Roy’s death, states in pertinent part:

An employer who has secured the payment of compensation in conformity with sections 21-A to 27 is exempt from civil actions, either at common law or under sections 141 to 148, Title 14, sections 8101 to 8118, and Title 18-A, section 2-804, involving personal injuries sustained by an employee arising out of and in the course of his employment, or for death resulting from those injuries.

39 M.R.S.A. § 4 has been repealed and replaced by 39-A M.R.S.A. § 104 (Supp.1993). P.L.1991, ch. 885, §§ A-7, A-8.

39 M.R.S.A. § 28 (1989), in effect at the time of Roy's death, provides in pertinent part:

An employee of an employer, who shall have secured the payment of compensation as provided in sections 21 to 27 shall be held to have waived his right of action at common law to recover damages for the injuries sustained by him, and under the statutes specified in section 4.

39 M.R.S.A. § 28 was repealed and replaced by 39-A M.R.S.A. § 28-A. P.L.1991, ch. 544 §§ 12, 13. 39-A M.R.S.A. § 28-A has in turn been repealed and replaced by 39-A M.R.S.A. § 408 (Supp.1993). P.L.1991, ch. 885, §§ A-7, A-8.

2 . In addition, Roy’s fatality arose out of her employment, as required by 39 M.R.S.A. § 4. An injury arises out of employment when, in some proximate way, it has its origin, its source, or its cause in the employment. Bruton v. City of Bath, 432 A.2d 390, 392 (Me.1981); Rioux v. Franklin County Memorial Hosp., 390 A.2d 1059, 1061 (Me.19-78). It is undisputed that Roy's injury took place during a robbery against the store. Moreover, Li's complaint against C.N. Brown is premised on a breach of its duty to Roy created by their employment relationship. Thus, that Roy’s death arose out of her employment is the only conclusion supported by the evidence.