Mississippi Loggers Self Insured Fund, Inc. v. Andy Kaiser Logging

992 So. 2d 649, 2008 WL 1947497
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedMay 6, 2008
Docket2007-WC-00554-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 992 So. 2d 649 (Mississippi Loggers Self Insured Fund, Inc. v. Andy Kaiser Logging) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mississippi Loggers Self Insured Fund, Inc. v. Andy Kaiser Logging, 992 So. 2d 649, 2008 WL 1947497 (Mich. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

992 So.2d 649 (2008)

MISSISSIPPI LOGGERS SELF INSURED FUND, INC., Appellant,
v.
ANDY KAISER LOGGING, KCS Lumber Co., Indiana Lumbermen's Insurance Company and Mississippi Pacific Co., Appellees.

No. 2007-WC-00554-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

May 6, 2008.
Rehearing Denied August 5, 2008.
Certiorari Denied October 16, 2008.

*650 Steven D. Slade, Meridian, attorney for appellant.

Christopher Eric Kelley, Natchez, Clifford B. Ammons, Jackson, Suzanne N. Saunders, Canton, Anastasia G. Jones, Jackson, attorneys for appellees.

Before LEE, P.J., CHANDLER and BARNES, JJ.

CHANDLER, J., for the Court.

¶ 1. This appeal concerns the efforts by the Mississippi Loggers' Self-Insured Fund (the Fund), over an approximate ten-year period, to recoup the workers' compensation benefits it paid to Howard McDonald under the mistaken belief that it insured his employer, Andy Kaiser Logging (Kaiser). In 1995, the Fund provided workers' compensation insurance for Kaiser's employees. McDonald suffered a compensable injury on April 3, 1996, while Kaiser was conducting logging operations on a parcel of land known as the Selman tract. The Fund paid $177,586 in benefits to McDonald under a reservation of rights. Later, the Mississippi Workers' Compensation Commission (Commission) determined that the Fund had effectively cancelled Kaiser's workers' compensation *651 insurance policy before the date of McDonald's injury.

¶ 2. The Fund sought reimbursement of the benefits it had mistakenly paid to McDonald from Kaiser and from three companies that owned timber on the Selman tract: KCS Lumber Company (KCS), Columbus Lumber Company (Columbus), and Tri-Lake Timber Company (Tri-Lake). The Fund filed a notice of lien and a motion for reimbursement of lien, seeking a determination of the party solely liable for the payment of McDonald's benefits pursuant to Mississippi Code Annotated section 71-3-37(13) (Supp.2007). The Fund argued that either KCS, Columbus, or Tri-Lake was responsible for providing workers' compensation coverage for McDonald. The Commission initially held that section 71-3-37(13) did not apply, but on appeal, the circuit court remanded the case to the Commission to determine the solely liable party.

¶ 3. On remand, the Commission determined that Kaiser was the party solely liable for workers' compensation coverage for McDonald. The circuit court affirmed this determination. The Fund appeals, arguing: (1) that the Commission erroneously interpreted and applied section 71-3-37(13) in making its liability determination and (2) that the Commission's determination that Kaiser was the solely liable party was unsupported by substantial evidence.

¶ 4. Finding no error, we affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 5. Kaiser was a logging company owned and operated by Andy Kaiser, with several subordinate employees. KCS operated a high-grade hardwood sawmill. On March 18, 1996, KCS purchased all the merchantable hardwood and pine timber, with certain exclusions, on the Selman tract. Columbus, which operated a pine sawmill, bought the pine timber from KCS. Tri-Lake was in the business of buying miscellaneous wood and selling it to various sawmills, and it purchased the low-grade hardwood pulpwood logs from KCS.

¶ 6. KCS, Columbus, and Tri-Lake each arranged for Kaiser to harvest its wood from the Selman tract and to haul it to the specific sawmills. Kaiser used its own equipment during the operations. Representatives from each company occasionally came to the Selman tract to check on Kaiser's operations. Company representatives told Kaiser what size logs to cut for each sawmill, but they did not direct how Kaiser's work was to be performed. Each company paid Kaiser per load of logs, and none of the companies paid unemployment taxes for Kaiser.

¶ 7. On April 3, 1996, during logging operations on the Selman tract, Kaiser's employee, McDonald, was struck by a falling pulpwood tree and severely injured. McDonald filed a petition to controvert against Kaiser, and the Fund commenced the payment of workers' compensation benefits to McDonald. Subsequently, the Fund filed a motion for summary judgment requesting its dismissal from the case because it allegedly had cancelled Kaiser's workers' compensation insurance for non-payment of premiums effective December 25, 1995.[1] On April 17, 1997, the *652 Fund moved to discharge or suspend its payment of benefits to McDonald.

¶ 8. After a hearing, on August 18, 1997, an administrative law judge found that the Fund had effectively cancelled Kaiser's policy pursuant to Mississippi Code Annotated section 71-3-77 (Supp.2007), by giving the requisite statutory notice to Kaiser and to the Commission. The administrative law judge decreed that, because the Fund had cancelled the policy before McDonald's injury, the Fund was relieved of any further liability for payment of benefits to McDonald. The administrative law judge also held that Kaiser was responsible for providing all further compensation payments due to McDonald. Kaiser filed a petition for full Commission review of the administrative law judge's order. The full Commission dismissed Kaiser's petition with prejudice because issues remained to be determined by the administrative law judge.[2]

¶ 9. On April 3, 1998, McDonald filed petitions to controvert against KCS, Columbus, and Tri-Lake. Each of these companies had a workers' compensation insurance policy in effect on the date of McDonald's injury. All three companies answered, and each denied that McDonald was employed by the company on the date of his injury.[3] The Fund filed a "Notice of Lien and Request for Relief" and a "Motion for Reimbursement of Lien Under § 71-3-37(13) or For Ultimate Determination of Liable Party/Parties." The Fund contended that the order of the administrative law judge, finding that the Fund had not insured Kaiser at the time of the injury, created a lien in favor of the Fund for the benefits it had mistakenly paid in the amount of $177,586. The Fund argued that McDonald's petitions to controvert against KCS, Columbus, and Mississippi Pacific/Tri-Lake necessitated a Commission determination of whether any of these companies was liable to pay benefits under Mississippi Code Annotated section 71-3-7 (Rev.2000) as McDonald's statutory employer. The Fund also contended that, under Mississippi Code Annotated section 71-3-37(13), the Commission should order Kaiser, KCS, Columbus, and Mississippi Pacific/Tri-Lake to pay the lien of the Fund pro rata until a determination of the solely liable party was made, whereupon the solely liable party would be ordered to reimburse the other parties. Section 71-3-37(13) provides:

Whenever a dispute arises between two (2) or more parties as to which party is liable for the payment of workers' compensation benefits to an injured employee and there is no genuine issue *653 of material fact as to the employee's employment, his average weekly wage, the occurrence of an injury, the extent of the injury, and the fact that the injury arose out of and in the course of the employment, the commission may require the disputing parties involved to pay benefits immediately to the employee and to share equally in the payment of those benefits until it is determined which party is solely liable, at which time the liable party must reimburse all other parties for the benefits they have paid to the employee with interest at the legal rate.

¶ 10.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
992 So. 2d 649, 2008 WL 1947497, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mississippi-loggers-self-insured-fund-inc-v-andy-k-missctapp-2008.