Ream v. Wendt

410 P.2d 119, 2 Ariz. App. 497, 1966 Ariz. App. LEXIS 368
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arizona
DecidedJanuary 25, 1966
Docket2 CA-CIV 120
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 410 P.2d 119 (Ream v. Wendt) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ream v. Wendt, 410 P.2d 119, 2 Ariz. App. 497, 1966 Ariz. App. LEXIS 368 (Ark. Ct. App. 1966).

Opinion

MOLLOY, Judge.

This is an appeal from a summary judgment rendered in a negligence action in favor of the defendant on the grounds that the plaintiff’s exclusive remedy against the defendant-employer is a proceeding under the Workmen’s Compensation Act.

The plaintiff, employed by the defendant as a waitress in a bar and restaurant in Douglas, Arizona, known as The Palm Grove, was injured during the course of her employment on January 29, 1964. Subsequent to her accident, the plaintiff applied to The Industrial Commission of Arizona for compensation. On April 9, 1964, The Industrial Commission made an award, finding that the plaintiff had sustained a personal injury by accident arising out of and in the course of her employment on January 29, 1964, that at the time of said accident the defendant-employer was insured against liability for the payment of accident benefits and compensation, that the plaintiff was entitled to temporary disability from January 30, 1964 through February 16, 1964, and that the plaintiff had suffered no physical disability resulting from said accident. On the basis of these findings, The Industrial Commission awarded accident benefits and the sum of $76.93 for temporary total disability.

Previous to this award, on approximately March 16, 1964, the plaintiff consulted with an attorney about the possibility of bringing legal action against the defendant. Subsequent to this conference, and previous to the award, the plaintiff submitted to The Industrial Commission a supplemental claim for compensation, and subsequent to the award of April 9, 1964, the plaintiff received and cashed a check for $8.55 from The Industrial Commission as final payment of the $76.93 allowed for temporary total disability.

The plaintiff’s suit against the defendant-employer is based on three contentions: (1) that A.R.S. § 23-906, subsec. C providing, inter alia, that employees who fail to reject the Workmen’s Compensation Act prior to injury are “* * * conclusively presumed to have elected to take compensation * * *” is unconstitutional; (2) that the defendant-employer either did not post notices of the right to reject workmen’s compensation as provided by A.R.S. § 23-906, subsec. D and/or that the employer failed to keep available forms for the rejection of workmen’s compensation as provided by A.R.S. § 23-906, subsec. B; and (3) that the plaintiff did not, by making a claim for compensation, waive the option to bring an action against her employer because when she made such claim she did not know of her alternative remedies, and did not know that filing a claim for compensation would constitute a waiver of a right to bring a negligence action against her employer.

The monies received by the plaintiff for compensation and those paid out on her behalf as accident benefits have not been tendered back, but, on December 14, 1964, after this action had been pending since June 19, 1964, the plaintiff filed a document denominated “Notice and Tender,” in which she requested that she be forthwith notified of the total of monies expended on her behalf and in which she stated that upon notification such sum would be forthwith remitted to The Industrial Commission. This information seems to have previously been provided, however, for in an affidavit of Glen D. Webster, Jr., defendant’s attorney, filed November 16, 1964 in support of the defendant’s motion for summary judgment, the amounts expended for medical benefits and paid for temporary total disability were set forth as being $411.00 and $76.93 respectively.

We first proceed to the attack upon the constitutionality of A.R.S. § 23-906. The *499 contention is made that this section, insofar as it provides for a conclusive election to take workmen’s compensation benefits by failure to reject the Act prior to injury, is in violation of art. 18, §§ 6 and 8 1 of the Arizona Constitution, A.R.S. The plaintiff points out that it is the law of this jurisdiction that art. 18, § 6 solidifies in the Constitution the right to bring a negligence action for personal injury. Alabam’s Freight Co. v. Hunt, 29 Ariz. 419, 242 P. 658 (1926).

In Industrial Commission of Arizona v. Crisman, 22 Ariz. 579, 199 P. 390 (1921), our Supreme Court held the then existing Workmen’s Compensation Act unconstitutional because of a similar provision to that challenged now in the present Act. At that time, art. 18, § 8 of our Constitution ended with the proviso: “ * * * that it shall be optional with said employee to settle for such compensation, or retain the right to sue said employer as provided by this Constitution.” Provision for a conclusive election by failing to reject prior to injury, as contained in § 60 of the old Act, was held to he a violation of this proviso, and the entire Workmen’s Compensation Act was struck down.

Thereafter, in 1925, the subject provision in the Constitution was amended by adding thereto the following language:

" * * * provided further, in order to assure and make certain a just and humane compensation law in the State of Arizona, for the relief and protection of such workmen, their widows, children or dependents, as defined by law, from the burdensome, expensive and litigious remedies for injuries to or death of such workmen, now existing in the State of Arizona, and producing uncertain and unequal compensation therefor, such employee, engaged in such private employment, may exercise the option to settle for compensation by failing to reject the provisions of such Workmen’s Compensation Law prior to the injury.” (Emphasis added.)

*500 In the Alabam’s Freight Company case, supra, the new Act was challenged as to its constitutionality and upheld, against a many-pronged attack, with one exception. The court found that that portion of the Act granting an election to reject the Act only to those employees engaged in hazardous employment was in violation of art. 18, § 8 in that it did not grant the election to all employees, and the court held that the election provision under the mandate of this constitutional provision must apply to all employees. As thus construed, the new Act was held to be valid.

It is the plaintiff’s contention, however, that the specific attack as to constitutionality now made was not before the court in the Alabam’s Freight Company case nor did the court then have the doctrine pertaining to election of remedies established by the three Pressley decisions. Pressley v. Industrial Commission, 72 Ariz. 299, 233 P.2d 1082 (1951); Pressley v. Industrial Commission, 73 Ariz. 22, 236 P.2d 1011 (1951); State ex rel. Industrial Commission v. Pressley, 74 Ariz. 412, 250 P.2d 992 (1952).

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Bluebook (online)
410 P.2d 119, 2 Ariz. App. 497, 1966 Ariz. App. LEXIS 368, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ream-v-wendt-arizctapp-1966.