STOLZ v. J & B STEEL ERECTORS, INC., Et Al.

2018 Ohio 5088, 122 N.E.3d 1228, 155 Ohio St. 3d 567
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 20, 2018
Docket2017-1245
StatusPublished
Cited by34 cases

This text of 2018 Ohio 5088 (STOLZ v. J & B STEEL ERECTORS, INC., Et Al.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
STOLZ v. J & B STEEL ERECTORS, INC., Et Al., 2018 Ohio 5088, 122 N.E.3d 1228, 155 Ohio St. 3d 567 (Ohio 2018).

Opinions

DeWine, J.

*567{¶ 1} Ohio law allows a general contractor on certain large construction projects to "self-insure" and provide workers' compensation coverage for its own employees and for the employees of subcontractors that enroll in the contractor's self-insurance program. An employee who is injured on the job may not pursue a negligence claim against the general contractor or an enrolled subcontractor but must instead seek compensation pursuant to Ohio's workers' compensation laws. In this case, which comes to us by way of a certified question from the United States District Court, we consider whether this scheme violates certain provisions of the Ohio Constitution. We conclude that it does not.

*1231I. Background

{¶ 2} This is the second time in the same federal lawsuit that we have been called upon to answer a question about the contractor-self-insurance program. See Stolz v. J & B Steel Erectors, Inc. , 146 Ohio St.3d 281, 2016-Ohio-1567, 55 N.E.3d 1082, ¶ 3-8 (" Stolz I "). The district-court case arose from a workplace accident that occurred during construction of the Horseshoe Casino in Cincinnati.

*568Daniel Stolz was injured when a floor upon which he was working collapsed, causing him to fall some 25 feet. Stolz was employed as a concrete finisher for Jostin Construction, Inc. ("Jostin"). And Jostin was a subcontractor of Messer Construction Company ("Messer"), the general contractor for the project.

{¶ 3} Prior to the start of construction, Messer received permission from the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation to act as the self-insuring employer on the project under R.C. 4123.35(O). Under the statute, Messer provided workers' compensation coverage on the project for its own employees as well as the employees of subcontractors like Jostin that chose to enroll in Messer's self-insurance plan ("enrolled subcontractors").

{¶ 4} After he was injured, Stolz sued Messer and several of the subcontractors for negligence. Messer and three of the enrolled subcontractors moved for summary judgment on the grounds that they are immune from liability under R.C. 4123.35(O)'s provisions concerning contractor self-insurance.

{¶ 5} The district court granted summary judgment to Messer, as the general contractor, but refused to extend immunity to the subcontractors. Following summary judgment, we accepted our first certified question of state law from the federal court. That question asked whether R.C. 4123.35 and 4123.74 provide immunity to enrolled subcontractors from tort claims brought by employees of other enrolled subcontractors. Stolz I , 146 Ohio St.3d 281, 2016-Ohio-1567, 55 N.E.3d 1082, at ¶ 8. We answered the question in the affirmative, concluding that the statutes "create a legal fiction that a self-insuring employer for a self-insured construction project is the single employer, for workers' compensation purposes, of all employees working for enrolled subcontractors on that project." Id. at ¶ 27.

{¶ 6} Back before the district court, Stolz amended his complaint to allege that R.C. 4123.35(O) violates various provisions of the United States and Ohio Constitutions. Once more, the enrolled subcontractors petitioned the district court to certify a question of state law to this court. Again, we accepted. The question is

"[w]hether Ohio [R.C.] 4123.35(O) is unconstitutional as applied to the tort claims of an enrolled subcontractor's employee who is injured while working on a self-insured construction project and whose injury is compensable under Ohio's workers' compensation laws."

(Brackets sic.) 151 Ohio St.3d 1451, 2017-Ohio-8842, 87 N.E.3d 220, quoting the district court's certification order.

II. Ohio's Workers' Compensation System and R.C. 4123.35(O)

{¶ 7} The Ohio Constitution authorizes the legislature to establish a state fund for the purpose of "providing compensation to workmen and their dependents, for *569death, injuries or occupational disease, occasioned in the course of such workmen's employment" and to require "compulsory contribution thereto" from employers. Ohio Constitution, Article II, Section 35. An employer that "pays the premium or compensation provided by law * * * *1232shall not be liable to respond in damages at common law or by statute for such death, injuries or occupational disease." Id.

{¶ 8} The legislature established the Ohio workers' compensation system under this authority. See R.C. Chapter 4123. Most employers participate in the system by paying premiums into a state insurance fund that administers and pays out claims. R.C. 4123.35(A). The scheme also allows certain employers who possess "sufficient financial and administrative ability" to self-insure their workers' compensation obligations. R.C. 4123.35(B). These "self-insuring employer[s]" have the same immunity from liability as other employers but pay claims directly to injured employees and the dependents of deceased employees. Id.

{¶ 9} R.C. 4123.35(O) takes the self-insurance principle a step further.

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Bluebook (online)
2018 Ohio 5088, 122 N.E.3d 1228, 155 Ohio St. 3d 567, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stolz-v-j-b-steel-erectors-inc-et-al-ohio-2018.