Smith v. Ellis

731 S.E.2d 731, 291 Ga. 566, 2012 Fulton County D. Rep. 2747, 2012 WL 3887670, 2012 Ga. LEXIS 701
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedSeptember 10, 2012
DocketS12A1174
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 731 S.E.2d 731 (Smith v. Ellis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Smith v. Ellis, 731 S.E.2d 731, 291 Ga. 566, 2012 Fulton County D. Rep. 2747, 2012 WL 3887670, 2012 Ga. LEXIS 701 (Ga. 2012).

Opinion

Nahmias, Justice.

The principal question in this appeal is whether an employee who files an injury claim against his employer under the Workers’ Compensation Act, OCGA §§ 34-9-1 to 34-9-421, and receives compensation in exchange for a “no liability” settlement with his employer that is approved by the State Board of Workers’ Compensation [567]*567pursuant to OCGA § 34-9-15 (b), may then turn around and sue the co-employee who caused the injury in a tort action. Ten years ago, the Court of Appeals answered this question no, holding that the Act’s exclusive remedy provision, OCGA § 34-9-11 (a), bars such a lawsuit based on the same injury for which the employee has already received a remedy under OCGA § 34-9-15 (b). See Ridley v. Monroe, 256 Ga. App. 686 (569 SE2d 561) (2002). In this appeal, however, the Court of Appeals was equally divided as to whether Ridley should be overruled, and the case was sent to this Court for resolution. See Ga. Const, of 1983, Art. VI, Sec. V, Par. V (“In the event of an equal division of the Judges [of the Court of Appeals] when sitting as a body, the case shall be immediately transmitted to the Supreme Court.”).

We hold that Ridley was correctly decided. Thus, appellant Joseph Smith, having previously entered a Board-approved settlement with his employer under OCGA § 34-9-15 (b) in exchange for compensation, would be barred from suing appellee John Ellis for the same injury in tort if Ellis qualifies as an “employee of the same employer” as Smith, rather than a “third-party tort-feasor,” as those phrases are used in OCGA § 34-9-11 (a). However, the evidence does not establish, without genuine dispute, that Ellis was acting as “an employee of the same employer,” that is, in the course of his employment, at the time he injured Smith. The trial court therefore erred in granting summary judgment to Ellis, and that judgment is reversed.

1. On appeal from an award of summary judgment, we view the evidence and make all reasonable inferences from it in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. See Kaplan v. City of Sandy Springs, 286 Ga. 559, 560 (690 SE2d 395) (2010). Viewed most favorably to Smith, the evidence shows as follows. In February 2009, Smith and Ellis were both employed by The Knight Group, a company that builds and sells new houses. Smith was assigned to work at the Westcott Place subdivision in Dawsonville, and Ellis was assigned to the Red Hawk Ridge subdivision in Cartersville.

On February 12, Ellis called Smith to arrange a meeting so that he could borrow one of Smith’s tools for his personal use. Ellis also wanted to shoot some new guns he had purchased, including an AR-15 rifle, in an undeveloped field in the Westcott Place subdivision. At 10:30 the next morning, the two men met at a house that Smith was finishing in Westcott Place. Ellis made one phone call regarding a problem with the house and then followed Smith through a couple more houses for which Smith was responsible before they went to lunch around 11:00 a.m. Smith and Ellis returned to the subdivision at 1:00 p.m., where Smith continued to work. Ellis had no work to do and left that part of the property to avoid being seen by one of his supervisors, because he was not supposed to be at Westcott Place. At [568]*568about 2:30 p.m., Smith met Ellis in the undeveloped field, which was a quarter of a mile away from the houses where Smith had been working. Ellis began firing his new rifle while Smith organized his work tools next to his truck. The rifle jammed three times. Ellis successfully cleared the first two rounds, but he accidentally shot Smith in the right thigh when he tried to clear the third round. The bullet went through Smith’s right leg and into his left leg, causing serious injury.

The Knight Group fired both men shortly after the shooting. Smith filed a workers’ compensation claim against the employer, alleging that his injury was compensable under the Act because it arose out of and in the course of his employment. See OCGA § 34-9-1 (4) (defining “injury” to mean “only injury by accident arising out of and in the course of the [employee’s] employment”). The Knight Group ultimately agreed to pay Smith $6,000 in exchange for his stipulation that he had not sustained a compensable injury. Pursuant to OCGA § 34-9-15 (b), the “no liability” settlement was submitted to and approved by the Workers’ Compensation Board, which issued an award denying the employer’s liability on June 4, 2009.

Nine months later, Smith sued Ellis for negligence, and Smith’s wife, appellant Janet Smith, sued for loss of consortium. Ellis moved for summary judgment on both claims, contending that the tort lawsuit was barred by the Act’s exclusive remedy provision, OCGA § 34-9-11 (a).1 Relying on Ridley, 256 Ga. App. 686, the trial court granted summary judgment to Ellis. Smith appealed, arguing that his tort action against Ellis was not barred by his workers’ compensation settlement with The Knight Group because Ellis was acting as a “third-party tort-feasor” rather than as an “employee of the same employer” at the time of the injury. The whole Court of Appeals heard the case and divided evenly by vote of six to six. Both sides of the court focused on whether Ridley should be overruled rather than on the argument Smith had raised.

Presiding Judge Barnes, writing for the six judges in favor of reversing the trial court, said that “[i]f an injury is not compensable under the Workers’ Compensation Act, then the exclusive remedy provision does not apply.” Smith v. Ellis, Case No. A11A2171, decided March 29, 2012, slip op. at 7 (opinion of Barnes, P. J.) (unpublished). Presiding Judge Barnes then said that Smith’s injury was not compensable under the Act, because “[n]o rational mind can see a causal [569]*569connection in this case between the conditions of [Smith’s] employment and his injury.” Id. at 8. Although Ridley held that a no-liability settlement triggers the Act’s exclusive remedy provision and bars the injured employee from later suing a co-worker in tort, Presiding Judge Barnes concluded that Ridley’s holding was “illogical” and should be overruled. Smith, slip op. at 8 (opinion of Barnes, P. J.).

Judge Andrews, writing for the six judges in favor of affirming the trial court, held that Ridley controlled and was correctly decided. Smith, slip op. at 5 (opinion of Andrews, J.). Although Judge Andrews agreed that the exclusive remedy provision does not apply if an injury is not compensable under the Act, he noted that Smith was actually compensated under the Act. See id.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
731 S.E.2d 731, 291 Ga. 566, 2012 Fulton County D. Rep. 2747, 2012 WL 3887670, 2012 Ga. LEXIS 701, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/smith-v-ellis-ga-2012.