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Brunet v. Avondale Industries12/5/2000
mony of Dr. Gerald Liuzza. Dr. Liuzza is the expert the Fourth Circuit relied upon in Gautreaux. However, Dr. Liuzza is a pathologist, not a chemist. A pathologist studies the causation of diseases. In his deposition, he states that he would defer to chemists for the definition of "chemical compound." His deposition also displayed a fundamental misunderstanding about the designation "metal and their compounds" and "oxygen and its compounds." Dr. Liuzza argued that no matter how much metal asbestos contained, it is still not a metal itself. That, however, is not the inquiry for the purposes of RS 23:1031.1 and its list. Nowhere does that statute say that a metal compound must also be categorized as a metal itself. The textbook definitions of compound used above make clear that compounds can and do display different characteristics than their constituent elements. Dr. Liuzza also argued that asbestos would not be an oxygen compound because it did not display the reactivity typical to oxygen. However, again, the textbook definition of compound recognizes that compounds may not display the same chemical characteristics, including reactivity, of their constituent elements. The categorization of a substance as a compound does not depend on the substance reacting like its constituent elements.
Plaintiffs argue that the legislature could not have meant these categories to read so broadly, because then "everything" would have been included. However, we must take note that the term "compound," from a chemistry perspective, is a term of art; it has a specific, finite definition of which courts can take judicial notice. The legislature, in using it, is presumed to have understood that. The real question is not whether asbestos is an oxygen compound from a chemical perspective, because clearly it is, but rather did the legislature intend to include substances such as asbestos in categories such as oxygen and metal compounds.
We consider persuasive the fact that asbestosis, an occupational disease caused by asbestos exposure, is included as a compensable occupational disease, as evidence that the legislature intended to include all occupational diseases caused by asbestos exposure. It is well settled that the provisions of the Workers' Compensation Law must be given a liberal interpretation in order to effectuate its beneficent purpose of relieving workmen of the economic burden of work-connected injuries by diffusing the cost in the channels of commerce. Lester v. Southern Cas. Ins. Co., 466 So.2d 25 (La. 1985). Given the focus of the workers' compensation scheme, which is to cover employees who are injured in the course and scope of their employment under the compensation scheme, it is not logical that the legislature intended to provide coverage for only some of the workers made sick from asbestos exposure, and not others. The legislature's action in specifically listing the disease asbestosis could be attributed to their limited knowledge of the disease processes caused by asbestos exposure (and their latency) at the time the statute was enacted (1958). Plaintiffs' interpretation of the workers' compensation statutes creates a scenario where side-by-side workers, exposed to the same disease causing agent (here, asbestos), will be covered differently depending on the specific disease they develop. Such a result is contrary to the spirit and purpose of the workers' compensation scheme. Plaintiff's cancer, if caused by asbestos exposure while in the course and scope of his employment , should be covered under workers' compensation the same as his asbestosis. This court finds that asbestos is a pathogen included in the list in R.S. 23:1031.1 (1958), and therefore, plaintiff's exclusive remedy for an occupatio
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