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Suburban Hospital12/8/2000
Maryland Code (1991), Title 9 of the Labor and Employment Article (LE) is the Maryland Workers' Compensation Act (the Act). LE § 9-509 in part provides:
"(a) Employers.--Except as otherwise provided in this title, the liability of an employer under this title is exclusive.
"(b) Covered employees and dependents.--Except as otherwise provided in this title, the compensation provided under this title to a covered employee or the dependents of a covered employee is in place of any right of action against any person."
We granted certiorari in this action primarily to determine whether an employer-hospital enjoys the exclusivity defense under § 9-509 where the employer is sued by an employee for tort damages for personal injuries resulting from the negligent medical treatment of a work-related injury. The Court of Special Appeals, applying the "dual capacity" theory, denied the defense. Suburban Hosp. v. Kirson, 128 Md. App. 533, 552, 739 A.2d 875, 885 (1999). That court viewed the employer "in its capacity as an employer and ... in its capacity as a health care provider as discrete legal entities with no necessary relationship to each other." Id. at 547, 739 A.2d at 882.
In addition to the above issue of substantive law, the record in this case also reveals a failure to comply with the separate document requirement for the entry of judgment under Md. Rule 2-601. Nevertheless, we shall hold in Part II, infra, that there is appellate jurisdiction. With respect to the merits of the principal question, we shall hold in Part IV.C, infra, that workers' compensation is the employee's exclusive remedy against the employer-hospital for the negligent care.
I.
The employer, Suburban Hospital, Inc. (Suburban), is a petitioner and cross-respondent in this Court. The employee, Phyllis R. Kirson (Kirson), is the respondent and cross-petitioner. Kirson fractured her right femur when, on August 6, 1993, she slipped and fell in the operating room at Suburban while she was working as a nurse. She was immediately taken to the Suburban emergency room and then admitted to that hospital. The next day Kirson underwent surgical repair which involved the insertion of a metal plate and screws at the break point, just above the total prosthesis that had replaced Kirson's right knee in 1991.
On August 13, 1993, Kirson, while recuperating from the August 7 surgery, fell in her hospital room at Suburban. It is undisputed before us that the immediate cause of the fall of August 13 was the negligence of Aparangi Paul (Paul), a patient care technician who is a petitioner in this Court. Nor is there any dispute over Suburban's vicarious liability for the negligence of Paul if Suburban does not enjoy the exclusivity defense. At the time of the August 13 fall one of the cross-respondents, Mary Beth Smith (Smith), was the nurse assigned to Kirson, and the remaining cross-respondent, Mary Anderson (Anderson), was the charge nurse on duty. Their tort liability is disputed.
Many complications followed Kirson's falls. Suburban, a self- insurer for workers' compensation , paid Kirson temporary total disability compensation from August 7, 1993, to May 10, 1995. Following a hearing, the Workers' Compensation Commission (the Commission), by an order dated November 29, 1996, found that Kirson had sustained an accidental injury arising out of and in the course of her employment on August 6, 1993. The Commission ordered that Suburban pay 129 weeks of permanent partial disability compensation and that the Subsequent Injury Fund then pay 146 weeks. The Commission ordered Suburban to pay all medical expenses.
The present tort action was filed on July
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