the Kansas City Southern Railway Company v. Ronald K. Oney, Individually and as Representative of the Estate of Daniel D. Oney

380 S.W.3d 795, 2012 WL 4327050, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 5810
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 19, 2012
Docket14-11-00815-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 380 S.W.3d 795 (the Kansas City Southern Railway Company v. Ronald K. Oney, Individually and as Representative of the Estate of Daniel D. Oney) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
the Kansas City Southern Railway Company v. Ronald K. Oney, Individually and as Representative of the Estate of Daniel D. Oney, 380 S.W.3d 795, 2012 WL 4327050, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 5810 (Tex. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinions

OPINION

CHARLES W. SEYMORE, Justice.

Appellee, Ronald K. Oney, Individually and as Representative of the Estate of Daniel D. Oney, brought a claim under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act (“FELA”) against The Kansas City Southern Railway Company (“KCSR”). KCSR filed a motion to dismiss based on appel-lee’s failure to serve medical reports under Chapter 90 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code.1 The multidistrict litigation (“MDL”) court handling pretrial issues in this case denied KCSR’s motion, determining appellee is not required to comply with Chapter 90 report requirements. In a single issue, KCSR contends the trial court erred by denying the motion to dismiss. We affirm.

I. Background

On March 14, 2011, appellee filed his original petition, alleging the following facts. From 1971 until 1994, Daniel D. Oney (“the decedent”) was employed by KCSR, a railroad engaged in interstate commerce. During this employment, the decedent “was exposed to harmful and/or hazardous substances, including known human carcinogens, such as asbestos, silica, and diesel exhaust.” As a result of this exposure, the decedent was diagnosed with lung cancer in April 2010 and died approximately one month later. Appellee asserted a claim under FELA because of KCSR’s involvement in interstate railroad commerce.2

KCSR answered appellee’s suit and filed a motion to transfer the case to the asbestos MDL pretrial court. According to KCSR, its answer triggered a thirty-day deadline for the claimant to furnish medical reports under Chapter 90. Succinctly, sections 90.003 and 90.004, respectively, require a claimant alleging asbestos-related and silica-related injuries to serve re[798]*798ports in which a qualified physician verifies that the person alleged to have been exposed to asbestos or silica has been diagnosed with an injury caused by that exposure. See Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem.Code Ann. §§ 90.003, 90.004. It is undisputed appellee did not timely serve reports to KCSR. Pursuant to section 90.007, KCSR filed a motion to dismiss appellee’s asbestos-related and silica-related claims based on appellee’s failure to serve the reports required under Chapter 90. See id. § 90.007 (providing procedure for motion to dismiss). As discussed in more detail below, the filing of a section 90.007 motion to dismiss stays all proceedings until the motion is resolved by the court. Id. § 90.007(d). Appellee responded to the motion by contending Chapter 90 report requirements and dismissal provision are preempted by FELA.

On August 15, 2011, appellee filed an agreed motion to compel discovery from the hospital maintaining the decedent’s pathology. On August 17, 2011, appellee filed a supplemental response to KCSR’s motion to dismiss, arguing that “discovery in this case is in its infancy” and his experts needed an opportunity to review pathology evidence before providing reports. On August 26, 2011, the MDL court signed an order compelling the hospital to provide the requested pathology evidence. On the same date, the trial court also signed an order denying KCSR’s motion to dismiss, expressly concluding that appellee is not required to comply with Chapter 90 report requirements.

II. Jurisdiction

As an initial matter, appellee contends we lack jurisdiction to consider this interlocutory appeal. Generally, a party may appeal only a final judgment. See Lehmann v. Har-Con Corp., 39 S.W.3d 191, 195 (Tex.2001). However, a party may appeal an interlocutory order in which the trial court denies a motion to dismiss filed under section 90.007. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem.Code Ann. § 51.014(a)(ll) (West Supp. 2011).

Apparently, appellee argues section 51.014(a)(ll) does not apply because Chapter 90 is preempted by FELA. Thus, according to appellee, KCSR’s motion to dismiss was, in actuality, a motion to dismiss under FELA, not section 90.007. We disagree. In its motion to dismiss, KCSR specifically requested dismissal pursuant to section 90.007. Because the Texas Legislature has authorized interlocutory appeals from a trial court’s denial of a section 90.007 motion to dismiss, we have jurisdiction to consider this appeal.3

III. Federal Preemption

In a single issue, KCSR contends the trial court erred by denying KCSR’s motion to dismiss and concluding that appel-lee is not required to comply with Chapter 90 report requirements because they are preempted by FELA.

A. Conflict Preemption

Federal preemption of state law is grounded in the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution, which provides that “the Laws of the United States ... shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.” U.S. Const, art. VI, cl. 2; MCI Sales & Serv., Inc. v. Hinton, 329 S.W.3d 475, 481 (Tex.2010). Although there are several species of preemption, we are concerned with that type of “con[799]*799flict preemption” under which state law is preempted when it stands as an obstacle to the accomplishment and execution of congressional objectives. See Hinton, 329 S.W.3d at 482. Whether substantive or procedural, state law is preempted when it interferes with or restricts remedies under a federal statute. See Felder v. Casey, 487 U.S. 131, 138, 108 S.Ct. 2302, 101 L.Ed.2d 123 (1988). “[Wjhere state courts entertain a federally created cause of action, the ‘federal right cannot be defeated by the forms of local practice.’ ” Id. (quoting Brown v. W. Ry. of Ala., 338 U.S. 294, 296, 70 S.Ct. 105, 94 L.Ed. 100 (1949)). The relative importance to the state of its own law is immaterial when there is a conflict with a valid federal law because any state law, however clearly within a state’s acknowledged power, which interferes with or is contrary to federal law must yield. Free v. Bland, 369 U.S. 663, 666, 82 S.Ct. 1089, 8 L.Ed.2d 180 (1962). State procedural rules may not be used to impose unnecessary burdens upon rights of recovery authorized by federal law. See Brown, 338 U.S. at 298, 70 S.Ct. 105.

B. Federal Employers’ Liability Act (FELA)

“Before FELA was enacted, the harsh and technical rules of state common law had made recovery difficult or even impossible for injured railroad workers.” CSX Transp., Inc. v. McBride, — U.S. -, 131 S.Ct. 2630, 2638, 180 L.Ed.2d 637 (2011) (citation omitted). “[Djissatisfied with the [railroad’s] common-law duty, Congress sought to supplan[t] that duty with [FELA’s] far more drastic duty of paying damages for injury or death at work due in whole or in part to the employer’s negligence.” Id. (citations omitted). FELA was enacted to “shif[t] part of the human overhead of doing business from employees to their employers.” Id. at 2636 (citations omitted).

Under FELA,

Every common carrier by railroad while engaging in [interstate] commerce ...

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380 S.W.3d 795, 2012 WL 4327050, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 5810, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/the-kansas-city-southern-railway-company-v-ronald-k-oney-individually-texapp-2012.