Matrana v. Argonaut Great Central Insurance Co.

806 So. 2d 732, 0 La.App. 5 Cir. 872, 2001 La. App. LEXIS 2989, 2001 WL 1584617
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 12, 2001
DocketNo. 01-CA-640
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 806 So. 2d 732 (Matrana v. Argonaut Great Central Insurance Co.) 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
Matrana v. Argonaut Great Central Insurance Co., 806 So. 2d 732, 0 La.App. 5 Cir. 872, 2001 La. App. LEXIS 2989, 2001 WL 1584617 (La. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinion

I «GOTHARD, Judge.

Defendants, Laborie Food Mart, Inc. d/b/a Laborie Supermarket (Laborie), and Argonaut Great Central Insurance Company (Argonaut), appeal a judgment of the trial court which awarded plaintiff, Christina Michelle Matrana, $49,618.38 in damages for injuries sustained on defendant, Laborie’s, premises. For reasons that follow, we reverse.

The record shows that, at the time of the accident, Ms. Matrana was employed by Laborie as a part-time cashier. On the day of the incident, she was asked to work an extra shift because one of the other cashiers was ill. Originally, Ms. Matrana was scheduled to get off at about two or three in the afternoon. However, because of the extra shift she was not scheduled to leave the store until nine or ten at night. Because she worked the extra shift, Ms. Matrana was entitled to a thirty-minute break at about five or six that |3evening. When she took that break, she punched out and brought her food into the deli to heat it up. While waiting for her dinner to warm, she walked to the rear of the store to ask her supervisor how long the break would be. While speaking to her supervisor, she inadvertently placed her hand on a pallet lifting machine, causing the drive mechanism to engage and roll over her right foot. The incident caused severe injuries to Ms. Matrana’s foot.

Ms. Matrana filed a claim for workers’ compensation benefits which was denied by Laborie’s workers’ compensation insurer, Louisiana United Businesses Association Self-Insurance Fund (LUBA-SIF), on November 30, 1998. Subsequently, Ms. Matrana filed an action in tort against Laborie. In a supplemental and amending petition, plaintiff also added Argonaut, La-borie’s liability carrier, and LUBA-SIF as defendants. In the petition, plaintiff asserts that the pallet lifting machine was defective, and it was this defect which caused her injury.

LUBA-SIF filed an answer and an exception of no right of action, arguing that it was not subject to direct action under Louisiana Law. In its answer to plaintiffs claim, Argonaut asserted that no coverage was provided under the policy for injuries sustained in the course and scope of employment. Argonaut and Laborie filed a joint motion for summary judgment asserting that plaintiff was injured in the course and scope of her employment and is limited exclusively to workers’ compensation benefits pursuant to LSA-R.S. 23:1032. The trial court denied the motion. Defendants filed a writ application in this court seeking review of that decision which was denied.1 A subsequent writ application was denied by |4the Supreme Court with the reservation that defendants could “re-urge this issue on appeal in the event of an adverse judgment.”2

After the ruling on the defense motion for summary judgment by the trial court, [734]*734plaintiff dismissed her action against LUBA-SIF without prejudice. Subsequently, LUBA-SIF filed a motion for summary judgment, which was granted by the trial court. That judgment dismisses plaintiffs claim against LUBA-SIF with prejudice.

The matter went to trial on the merits before the bench, and judgment was rendered in favor of plaintiff. In support of the finding that plaintiff was not in the course and scope of her employment at the time of the accident, the trial court stated:

The testimony at trial revealed the area in which the accident occurred, although located in the warehouse, was used by the general public as a means of access to the store’s restrooms. Therefore, it was not an area which was solely restricted to store personnel. Secondly, the plaintiff had actually punched a time sheet. This indicated that she was not actually working at the time of the accident but was actually on her own time. At that point, she just like any other member of the general public who would enter the warehouse, was exposed to the same risk of injury as the general public.

Both Laborie and Argonaut have appealed the judgment. In separate briefs both defendants argue that plaintiffs claim is precluded by the immunity afforded an employer pursuant to the workers’ compensation law. It is also argued that the trial court erred in not finding that plaintiffs actions were either the sole, or a contributing cause, of the accident. Plaintiff filed an answer to the appeal seeking costs for frivolous appeal.

| ¡¿Pursuant to LSA-R.S. 23:1031, 1032, workers’ compensation is the exclusive remedy of an employee whose injury arises out of and in the course of her employment. That provision grants an defendant/employer, because he possesses a certain status, the right to plead the affirmative defense of immunity that may be asserted as a procedural bar against an otherwise viable negligence action. Walls v. American Optical Corp., 98-0455 (La.9/8/99), 740 So.2d 1262. When the employer seeks to avail itself of tort immunity under Section 1032, the employer bears the burden of proving entitlement to the immunity. Mundy v. Department of Health & Human Resources, 593 So.2d 346 (La.1992).

In Guillory v. Interstate Gas Station, 94-1767 (La.3/30/95), 653 So.2d 1152, the Louisiana Supreme Court discussed the requirements of LSA-R.S. 23:1032:

The terms “arising out of’ and “in the course of’ constitute a dual requirement. The former suggests an inquiry into the character or origin of the risk while the latter brings into focus the time and place relationship between the risk and the employment. The two requirements cannot, however, be considered in isolation from each other. A strong showing by the claimant with reference to the arise-out-of requirement may compensate for a relatively weak showing on the during-course-of requirement, or vice versa. As a corollary it follows that whenever the showing with respect to both requirements is relatively weak a denial of compensation is indicated. (Citations omitted)

Id. 653 So.2d at 1154.

The term, “in the course of’ concerns the time and place relationship between the risk and the employment. Raybol v. Louisiana, 520 So.2d 724, 725 (La.1988). The phrase “arising out of’ suggests an inquiry into the ^character or origin of the risk. Id. This is explained more fully in Mundy v. Department of Health and Human Resources, 593 So.2d 346 (La.1992):

[735]*735... While coverage has been extended in some cases to include accidents during times for rest or lunch periods or before and after work on the employer’s premises, or to include accidents at places where employment duties are performed off the employer’s premises, the principal criteria for determining course of employment are time, place and employment activity.
The determination of whether an accident arises out of employment focuses on the character or source of the risk which gives rise to the injury and on the relationship of the risk to the nature of the employment. An accident arises out of employment if the risk from which the injury resulted was greater for the employee than for a person not engaged in the employment. Moreover, an accident has also been held to arise out of employment if the conditions or obligations of the employment caused the employee in the course of employment to be at the place of the accident at the time the accident occurred....

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806 So. 2d 732, 0 La.App. 5 Cir. 872, 2001 La. App. LEXIS 2989, 2001 WL 1584617, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/matrana-v-argonaut-great-central-insurance-co-lactapp-2001.