Warnke v. Nabors Drilling USA, L.P.

358 S.W.3d 338, 32 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 1356, 2011 Tex. App. LEXIS 6873, 2011 WL 4836199
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 25, 2011
Docket01-09-00734-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 358 S.W.3d 338 (Warnke v. Nabors Drilling USA, L.P.) 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
Warnke v. Nabors Drilling USA, L.P., 358 S.W.3d 338, 32 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 1356, 2011 Tex. App. LEXIS 6873, 2011 WL 4836199 (Tex. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

OPINION ON REHEARING

HARVEY BROWN, Justice.

Appellees Nabors Drilling USA, L.P., NDUSA Holdings Corporation, and Bruce Wilkinson filed a motion for rehearing and a motion for en banc reconsideration of our opinion issued on April 7, 2011. We grant rehearing, deny as moot their motion for reconsideration en banc, withdraw our opinion and judgment, and issue this opinion.

Robert Earl Warnke filed negligence, fraud, and negligent misrepresentation claims against Nabors Drilling USA, L.P., NDUSA Holdings Corporation, and Bruce Wilkinson arising out of his workplace injury and his claim for workers’ compensation. 1 The trial court granted a traditional summary judgment against Warnke disposing of all claims and all parties. Warnke contends the trial court erred in granting summary judgment because (1) Nabors and NDUSA Holdings failed to establish that they provided him with pre-injury notice of coverage and such notice is required for it to claim subscriber status under the Texas Workers’ Compensation Act (the “Act”); (2) a genuine issue of material fact existed whether Wilkinson was an independent contractor and therefore covered under the Act’s exclusive remedy provision; and (3) his claims for injuries arising from Nabors’s alleged fraudulent and negligent misrepresentation constituted separate injuries from his on-the-job injury and fell outside the protection of the Act’s exclusive remedy provision.

We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for further proceedings.

Background

In December 2006, Warnke suffered an on-the-job injury at Nabors’s yard when a pipe connected by a co-worker, Bruce Wilkinson, came free and crushed his hand. In his affidavit, Warnke testified that his supervisor told him before his injury that he was not covered by workers’ compensation insurance and that after his injury an *342 employee in Nabors’s human resources department, Brandon Cannady, denied Na-bors’s responsibility for Warnke’s medical expenses. 2 Warnke’s wife testified by affidavit that Cannady told her that Warnke was not a Nabors employee and Nabors would not provide him workers’ compensation coverage. Warnke also alleged that Nabors and NDUSA Holdings never provided him written notice of coverage under workers’ compensation insurance before his injury. Eight months after the accident and about three months after filing suit, Warnke began receiving workers’ compensation benefits from Nabors’s workers’ compensation carrier.

Warnke filed suit against Nabors for negligence, fraud, and negligent misrepresentation, against NDUSA Holdings for negligence, and against Wilkinson for negligence. 3 In his original petition, Warnke claimed that he and Wilkinson were both employees of Nabors. He later amended his petition to plead in the alternative that Wilkinson was an independent contractor.

Nabors, NDUSA Holdings, and Wilkinson filed a traditional motion for summary judgment arguing that no genuine issue of material fact existed because the Act’s exclusive remedy provision bars Warnke’s recovery. Nabors, NDUSA Holdings, and Wilkinson argued that subscriber status does not depend on providing the employee with pre-injury notice of coverage. Na-bors — the only defendant sued for fraud and negligent misrepresentation claims— also asserted that the exclusive remedy provision barred Warnke’s fraud and negligent misrepresentation claims. Warnke responded that (1) Nabors and NDUSA Holdings were not subscribers because they failed to give Warnke notice of coverage and their insurance provider was not authorized to act in Texas; (2) a fact issue exists regarding whether Wilkinson was an independent contractor and therefore not covered by the exclusive remedy provision; and (3) his fraud and negligent misrepresentation claims arise from a separate injury from the on-the-job injury covered by the Act. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of Nabors, NDUSA Holdings, and Wilkinson on all claims.

Summary Judgment Standard of Review

We review a trial court’s summary judgment de novo. Valence Operating Co. v. Dorsett, 164 S.W.3d 656, 661 (Tex.2005); Provident Life & Accident Ins. Co. v. Knott, 128 S.W.3d 211, 215 (Tex.2003). Under the traditional standard for summary judgment motions, the movant has the burden to show that no genuine issue of material fact exists and the trial court should grant judgment as a matter of law. Tex.R. Civ. P. 166a(c); KPMG Peat Marwick v. Harrison Cnty. Hous. Fin. Corp., 988 S.W.2d 746, 748 (Tex.1999). The motion must state the specific grounds relied upon for summary judgment. Tex.R. Civ. P. 166a(c). When reviewing a summary judgment motion, we take as true all evidence favorable to the nonmovant, and indulge every reasonable inference and resolve any doubts in the nonmovant’s favor. Dorsett, 164 S.W.3d at 661; Knott, 128 S.W.3d at 215. A defendant moving for traditional summary judgment must conclusively negate at least one essential element of each of the plaintiffs causes of *343 action or conclusively establish each element of an affirmative defense. Sci. Spectrum, Inc. v. Martinez, 941 S.W.2d 910, 911 (Tex.1997).

Exclusive Remedy Under the Workers’ Compensation Act

The Act is the exclusive remedy for non-intentional, “work-related injuries” of an employee, and exempts the employer, its agents, and its employees from common-law liability claims based on negligence or gross negligence. See Tex. Lab.Code Ann. § 408.001(a) (West 2006); 4 Reed Tool Co. v. Copelin, 689 S.W.2d 404, 406 (Tex.1985). The exclusive remedy provision protects the employer in exchange for prompt remuneration to the employee who is relieved of the burden of proving the employer’s negligence. Hulshouser v. Tex. Workers’ Comp. Ins. Fund, 139 S.W.3d 789, 792 (Tex.App.-Dallas 2004, no pet.). The Act defines “injury” to mean, “damage or harm to the physical structure of the body and a disease or infection naturally resulting from the damage or harm.” Tex. Lab.Code Ann. § 401.011(26) (West Supp. 2010).

The exclusive remedy provision is an affirmative defense that the defendant must plead and prove. See Exxon Corp. v. Perez, 842 S.W.2d 629, 630-31 (Tex.1992); AMS Const. Co. v. K.H.K. Scaffolding Houston, Inc., 357 S.W.3d 30, 43 (Tex.App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 2011, no pet.) (citing Pierce v. Holiday, 155 S.W.3d 676, 678 (Tex.App.-Texarkana 2005, no pet.)). To demonstrate that a common law claim is barred by the Act, the defendant must show that the injured worker was (1) its employee at the time of the work-related injury and (2) covered by workers’ compensation insurance. See Garza v.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Robert Lane v. Odle, Inc.
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2024
Martinez v. Harris County
526 S.W.3d 557 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2017)
Texas Instruments, Inc. v. Alessandro Udell
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2016
Daniel E. Arnold v. Gerardo Gonzalez
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2015
Neighborhood Centers Inc. v. Doreatha Walker
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2015
Hand & Wrist Center of Houston, P.A. v. SGS Control Services, Inc.
409 S.W.3d 743 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2013)
Little v. Delta Steel, Inc.
409 S.W.3d 704 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2013)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
358 S.W.3d 338, 32 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 1356, 2011 Tex. App. LEXIS 6873, 2011 WL 4836199, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/warnke-v-nabors-drilling-usa-lp-texapp-2011.