Ryland v. Insurance Co. of North America

255 So. 2d 221, 1971 La. App. LEXIS 5307
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 10, 1971
DocketNo. 8592
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 255 So. 2d 221 (Ryland v. Insurance Co. of North America) 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
Ryland v. Insurance Co. of North America, 255 So. 2d 221, 1971 La. App. LEXIS 5307 (La. Ct. App. 1971).

Opinion

TUCKER, Judge.

This is a suit in which the plaintiffs, Ervin Ryland and Robert R. Redd, seek to recover damages for personal injuries and special damages against numerous individuals and entities, named as defendants in their original and amended petitions, including the defendants particularly involved here, Nichols Construction Company, Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company, Enjay Chemical Company and Insurance Company of North America, as the result of an explosion which occurred about 4:00 A.M. on March 23, 1970 at a plant owned by the defendant Enjay in the City of Baton Rouge, La. The plaintiffs, at the time of the accident, were employed by the defendant, Nichols Construction Company, and were performing welding work on an electric motor at the Enjay Plastic Plant (Articles 11 and 24 of plaintiffs’ original petition). Nichols, Fireman’s Fund, Enjay and INA filed motions for summary judgments to dismiss these companies as parties defendant for the reasons that the plaintiffs did not have a suit in tort, and such claim or claims, if any, which the plaintiffs might assert against these corporate defendants, was or were restricted to the relief provided under the workmen’s compensation law. In essence plaintiffs contend that they are not restricted to compensation benefits, but are entitled to an action against defendants in tort. The argument is based on the contention that plaintiffs were engaged in maintenance work which was not a part of Enjay’s regular trade, business or occupation. It is further argued in substance that Enjay’s principal trade, occupation or business is the production of chemicals, and that Enjay does not conduct maintenance of its facilities as a part of its regular business. Additionally, appellants point to the contract with Nichols as evidence of the fact that Enjay does not perform its own maintenance as a regular part of its business.

Coupled with the motion for a summary judgment filed on behalf of Nichols and Fireman’s Fund is a pleading designated as “Request For Admissions of Fact” wherein the plaintiffs are requested (1) to admit that they have not complied with LSA-R.S. 23:1040 in order to terminate the applicability of the Louisiana Workmen’s Compensation law with respect to their employment by Nichols, and (2) to admit that they have accepted workmen’s compensation payments from the insurer of Nichols.

The plaintiffs did not present any countervailing affidavits, or offer any other evidence to contravene the content and substance of these defendants’ motions and attachments.

On February 2 and February 4, 1971 the trial judge granted the motions, and signed summary judgments dismissing Nichols, Fireman’s Fund, Enjay and INA as parties defendant, but limited the dismissals of the two insurance companies only in their respective capacities as insurers of Nichols and Enjay.

From these judgments the plaintiffs have perfected this appeal.

The record conclusively shows that the plaintiffs were engaged in a hazardous occupation for Nichols, and that they were injured in the said accident while in the course and scope of an employment which was subject to the workmen’s compensation law.

In their motions for a summary judgment Nichols and Fireman’s Fund call attention to plaintiffs’ remedy being limited [223]*223and restricted to the provisions of the compensation law, and in further support of this position these defendants rely upon the failure of the plaintiffs to respond to the requests for admissions of facts attached to the motion. The plaintiffs do not deny that they did not comply with the provisions of LSA-R.S. 23:1040, and serve written notice on Nichols thirty days prior to the accident that the plaintiffs did not desire that the compensation law should continue to apply to their employment, and they do not assert that they have not received workmen’s compensation payments from these defendants, resulting from the injuries the plaintiffs received in the said accident. Plaintiffs argue that there are certain rights accruing to them above and beyond the benefits provided under the compensation law by virtue of the contract in the record between Enjay and Nichols whereby the parties to the contract agreed that Nichols would assume liability “for all claims for injuries.” Counsel reasons that the language of the said contract waives the compensation law and has the effect of removing the exclusiveness of the remedy afforded to them under compensation; counsel urges that the plaintiffs, by some strained interpretation, are the third party beneficiaries of a contract to which the plaintiffs were not parties. The court finds that this position is untenable for the simple reasons that there was no exclusion of the applicability of the compensation law at the outset of the employment; and the thirty days’ notice in order to terminate workmen’s compensation as the sole remedy for the injuries and disabilities received by the plaintiffs on the job was never given. It is clear that the causes of action, if any, against Nichols are limited to the compensation law.

The same result is obtained with respect to Fireman’s Fund, the insurer of Nichols. Counsel contends it is not established that Fireman’s Fund was the workmen’s compensation insurer of Nichols, and, therefore, is not protected under the exclusive remedy provisions of LSA-R.S. 23 :- 1032. The plaintiffs misconstrue in brief the meaning of LSA-R.S. 23:1166 which is authority solely for the propositions that an insurer, once having issued a workmen’s compensation policy to an employer, cannot avoid payment of compensation by arguing that the injured employee was not engaged in hazardous work, and neither may an injured employee claim any other benefits from such an insurer than those provided by the compensation law. Counsel urges the erroneous position that, in the absence of a showing by Fireman’s Fund that it wrote a workmen’s compensation policy for Nichols, it cannot at this stage rely upon its liability being exclusively limited to the benefits provided in the compensation law. Such a policy of insurance merely provides protection for the insured, and there is no independent liability of the insurer for damages where the insured is not so liable. Since Nichols does not owe any damages to the plaintiffs, they are restricted to the remedy provided by the workmen’s compensation law in their claim against Fireman’s Fund whether or not this insurance company issued a workmen’s compensation policy to Nichols. This, of course, has no bearing on the coverage which may be imposed upon Fireman’s Fund by any other policy or policies of insurance which this company may have issued to any other defendants than those named here. The judgment of the trial court has dismissed Fireman’s Fund properly and restrictedly as a defendant in these proceedings.

Plaintiffs take exception to the dismissal of Enjay, and its insurer, INA, as parties defendants by the trial court judgment. They look askance at the affidavit of Albert T. Furr, Jr., and opine that this affidavit merely expresses the opinion of Furr that at the time of the accident Nichols and the plaintiffs were performing work which was a part of the regular trade, business or occupation of Enjay; does not recite in sufficient detail facts which would justify a determination that the plaintiffs and their employer were performing the same kind of work when the accident oc[224]*224curred as was the case with Enjay. Plaintiffs cite the case of Cole v. Chevron Chemical Company, Orinite Division, 427 F.2d 390 (5th Cir.

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Bluebook (online)
255 So. 2d 221, 1971 La. App. LEXIS 5307, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ryland-v-insurance-co-of-north-america-lactapp-1971.