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Rubeis v. Aqua Club Inc.11/23/2004
ting Way v Grantling (289 AD2d 790, 792 [3d Dept 2001]) for the proposition that permanent total disability relates to the injured party's employability, not ability to function in society, the trial court concluded that the evidence raised material questions of fact. The Appellate Division, Second Department, reversed and, citing Rubeis, concluded that plaintiff's injuries were not a grave injury under the Workers' Compensation Law § 11.
Knauer v Anderson
Thomas Knauer, an electrician employed by Knauer Electric, sustained a brain injury when he fell 17 feet from a ladder and crashed headfirst onto a gravel floor. Knauer commenced a personal injury action against the general contractor and the property owner. The defendants then brought a third-party action against plaintiff's employer for indemnification. The trial court denied the employer's motion for summary judgment, finding a triable issue of fact regarding whether plaintiff sustained a grave injury.
After trial, the court charged the jury that permanent total disability means permanent total disability from employment and does not require that plaintiff lack all capacity to perform personal or household activities. The jury found in plaintiff's favor, awarding him $11 million, and the Appellate Division, Fourth Department, affirmed, relying on Way. The court reasoned, "evidence that a plaintiff has suffered the specified injury to the brain resulting in permanent total disability relates to his or her permanent total disability from employment, not to his or her ability to otherwise care for himself or herself and function in modern a society" (2 AD3d 1314, 1315 [4th Dept 2004] [internal quotations omitted]).
We granted leave to address this split among Departments on the meaning of "permanent total disability" under Workers' Compensation Law § 11.
Analysis
Workers' Compensation Law section 11 provides:
"An employer shall not be liable for contribution or indemnity to any third person based upon liability for injuries sustained by an employee acting within the scope of his or her employment for such employer unless such third person proves through competent medical evidence that such employee has sustained a 'grave injury ' which shall mean only one or more of the following: death, permanent and total loss of use or amputation of an arm, leg, hand or foot, loss of multiple fingers, loss of multiple toes, paraplegia or quadriplegia, total and permanent blindness, total and permanent deafness, loss of nose, loss of ear, permanent and severe facial disfigurement, loss of an index finger or an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external physical force resulting in permanent total disability."
Section 11 was enacted in 1996 as part of a comprehensive reform intended to reduce costs for employers while also protecting the interests of injured workers (Omnibus Workers' Compensation Reform Act of 1996, L 1996, ch 635; Governor's Mem approving L 1996, ch 635, Bill Jacket at 54). Before that, New York State stood alone in freely allowing a defendant in a personal injury action brought by an employee injured on the job to seek indemnification or contribution from the employer. Central to the reform was immunity from tort liability for employers who provide workers' compensation coverage by exposing employers to third-party liability "only in cases involving narrowly defined 'grave' injuries" (Gov Mem in Supp, Bill Jacket at 55 [emphasis in original]). The injuries enumerated as grave were "deliberately both narrowly and completely described. The list is exhaustive, not illustrative: it is not intended to be extended absent further legislative action" (id.).
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