McKee v. Inspectorate America Corp.

636 So. 2d 305, 1994 WL 131565
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 14, 1994
Docket93-CA-1253
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 636 So. 2d 305 (McKee v. Inspectorate America Corp.) 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
McKee v. Inspectorate America Corp., 636 So. 2d 305, 1994 WL 131565 (La. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinion

636 So.2d 305 (1994)

Murphy J. McKEE
v.
INSPECTORATE AMERICA CORPORATION, Chas. Martin Inspection and Controls, Inc., and John Robbie.

No. 93-CA-1253.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Fourth Circuit.

April 14, 1994.

Bubrig, Waid & Conner, Brian J. Waid, New Orleans, and Archie B. Creech, New Orleans, for plaintiff-appellant, Murphy J. McKee.

Allen & Gooch, William H. Parker, III, Lafayette, for defendants-appellees, Inspectorate American Corp., Chas. Martin Inspection and Controls, Inc., Chas. Martin Corp., Inc., and John Robbie.

Before SCHOTT, C.J., and KLEES, BYRNES, ARMSTRONG and PLOTKIN, JJ.

KLEES, Judge.

Plaintiff, Murphy J. McKee, appeals the trial court decision granting the defendants' exception of no cause of action. After reviewing the record and applicable law, we reverse.

Plaintiff, unsure as to who his actual employer is, sued Inspectorate America Corporation, Chas. Martin Inspection and Controls, Inc., Chas. Martin Corporation, and John Robbie in tort after he was allegedly injured in an automobile accident which occurred while he was engaged in work related activity. In his petition, plaintiff claims that the accident, which transpired after plaintiff fell asleep while driving his vehicle, was "caused by the defendant's outrageous and intentional conduct in requiring petitioner to work grossly excessive hours without relief, thereby placing him at risk." Plaintiff also asserts that the "acts and omissions of defendants were intentional and certain or reasonably certain to result in petitioner's injury."

The trial court, which granted the defendants' exception of no cause of action, found that plaintiff had no remedy under tort law and was limited to bringing his action under the Workers' Compensation Act. On appeal, plaintiff enumerates the following assignments of error: 1) that a petition which alleges injury due to an intentional act may not be dismissed through the granting of an exception of no cause of action and 2) that if plaintiff's petition failed to adequately allege an injury resulting from an intentional act, he should have been granted leave to amend his petition. Since we find plaintiff's first assignment of error to be of merit, plaintiff's second assignment of error will not be discussed.

The gravamen of plaintiff's appeal is that his intentional tort action cannot be dismissed via an exception of no cause of action. Although we agree with the defendants that plaintiff's averment is not consistent with notions of judicial economy, the relevant jurisprudence supports plaintiff's contention.

In Carey v. UMC (United Mechanical Contractors), 553 So.2d 472 (La.1989), the Louisiana Supreme Court reversed an appellate court's affirmation of the granting of a defendant's exception of no cause of action, stating:

Plaintiff's petition asserts that defendants intended to injure him or knew or should *306 have known that his injury was substantially certain to follow. Conditions of the mind such as malice, knowledge, and intent may be alleged generally. La. C.C.P. art. 856. Furthermore, the purpose of the exception of no cause of action is to determine the sufficiency of the petition and is triable on the face of the papers. Mayer v. Valentine Sugars, Inc., 444 So.2d 618 (La.1984). The merit of plaintiff's claim is to be determined after findings of fact upon motion for summary judgment or trial on the merits.

The order in Carey has been interpreted to imply that an exception of no cause of action is an improper vehicle to dismiss an intentional tort claim against a plaintiff's employer. Trahan v. Trans-Louisiana Gas Co., Inc., 618 So.2d 30, 31 (La.App. 3rd Cir.1993). Considering the above, the judgment of the trial court granting the exception of no cause of action is reversed and the case is remanded for further proceedings.

REVERSED AND REMANDED.

BYRNES and PLOTKIN, JJ., dissent with written reasons.

BYRNES, Judge, dissenting:

In Carey v. United Mechanical Contractors, 553 So.2d 472 (La.1989) the court noted that the "Plaintiff's petition asserts that defendants intended to injure him ...". In the instant case, when plaintiff's petition is read as a whole it becomes clear that plaintiff is alleging only that his injury was caused by unsafe working conditions of which the employer had knowledge, not that the employer wished him harm or committed an act which could normally be expected to invade the interests of another and which was the direct and immediate physical cause of the resulting damage. Adams v. Time Saver Stores, Inc., 615 So.2d 460, 462 (La.App. 4 Cir.1993).

This Court conducted a thorough analysis of the meaning of "intentional act" as used in the Worker's Compensation Law in Adams v. Time Saver Stores, Inc., supra, commencing at p. 462:

In Bazley v. Tortorich, 397 So.2d 475 (La. 1981) the court stated that:

"Courts in most states imposing such statutory or common law penalties for intentional misconduct have required the commission of a genuine intentional tort and have refused to stretch liability to include negligence, recklessness, or constructive intent." (Emphasis added.) 397 So.2d at 480.
* * * * * *
"... [P]laintiff's interpretation would thwart the legislative objective of broadening the class of defendants to be granted tort immunity. Instead, Act 147 of 1976 would have the reverse effect of restricting the exclusive remedy rule to claims of employees injured without any other person's fault. Any employee could bring suit and recover under article 2315 by pleading and proving that his injury was negligently caused by the voluntary conduct of his employer or co-employee.... In the absence of a clearer expression of legislative design to curtail drastically the workers compensation system, we cannot attribute such aims to the lawmakers." 397 So.2d at 482.

In Caudle v. Betts, 512 So.2d 389, 391 (La. 1987) the court stated:

"... [W]hen an employee seeks to recover from his employer for an intentional tort, a court must apply the legal precepts of general tort law related to the particular intentional tort alleged in order to determine whether he has proved his cause of action and damages recoverable thereunder."
In referring to "the particular intentional tort" in Caudle and "specific intentional tort" in Armstead v. Boh Bros. Construction Co., Inc., 609 So.2d 965 (La.App. 4 Cir.1992) it was not meant that plaintiff be required to pigeon-hole the tort or designate a specific traditional intentional tort by name in her pleadings; merely that plaintiff plead with sufficient specificity facts that have the attributes of an intentional act or tort as those terms have been understood traditionally in conformity with the intention of the legislature; as opposed to a broader definition of intentional act that would include foreseeable injury from known workplace hazards, *307 but no actual desire on the part of the employer that such injury should occur.
Likewise, the reference to "traditional intentional torts—such as battery, assault, false imprisonment, etc." in Dycus, [v. Martin Marietta Corp.], 568 So.2d [592] at 594 [(La.App. 4 Cir.1990)] was not an attempt to limit claims to a predetermined list of labels, but to provide a non-exclusive group of examples of intentional torts in order to make it clear that the act or tort complained of must have one of the following characteristics:
1.

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636 So. 2d 305, 1994 WL 131565, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mckee-v-inspectorate-america-corp-lactapp-1994.