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Haywood v. Dugal10/31/2000
AFFIRMED AND REMANDED.
Defendants appeal the trial court's denial of their motion for summary judgment and its grant of partial summary judgment in favor of plaintiffs. We affirm and remand for further proceedings.
These two consolidated cases arise from a June 8, 1997 one-car automobile accident in which Marion Haywood, Elda Behler and Ethel Albarado were guest passengers in a vehicle operated by Eve Dugal. The women all were employees of School Food & Nutritional Services of New Orleans, Inc. ("School Food"), a company affiliated with the Archdiocese of New Orleans. They were assigned to the cafeteria of St. Stephen's School, where Dugal was the cafeteria supervisor. The women were headed to Monroe, Louisiana for a food services conference on an expense-paid trip awarded to St. Stephen's in a raffle by School Food. Plaintiffs were injured when Dugal's vehicle hydroplaned and went off the road.
Haywood filed suit against Dugal and her insurer, Allstate Insurance Company. Behler and Albarado filed a separate suit against Dugal, Allstate, and Behler's and Albarado's uninsured/underinsured motorists' insurance carrier, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company. The cases were consolidated. School Food filed an intervention to recover monies paid to the three plaintiffs under workers' compensation.
Defendants and plaintiffs filed cross-motions for summary judgment. Defendants raised the defense that plaintiffs' exclusive remedy is in workers' compensation. Plaintiffs sought a ruling that the accident was not work-related and that their claims arise in tort.
The trial court denied defendants' motions for summary judgment but granted plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment. The court ruled that plaintiffs were not in the course and scope of their employment at the time of the accident and that the accident did not arise out of their employment. The court based that finding on the uncontested facts that plaintiffs won the opportunity to attend the conference by virtue of a raffle or random drawing, they were not required to attend the conference, and they were not to be paid wages while attending the conference.
Dugal, Allstate and State Farm appeal. They contend the trial court erred in finding that plaintiffs and Dugal were not in the course and scope of their employment at the time of this accident, thus allowing plaintiffs to assert claims against the defendants in tort.
An employee who receives personal injury "by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment" is entitled to workers' compensation benefits. La. R.S. 23:1031(A). The rights and remedies granted under the Workers' Compensation Act are exclusive of all other rights, remedies and claims for damages, except for liability resulting from an intentional act. La. R.S. 23:1032(A)-(B).
The exclusive remedy defense is available not only to the employer, but to co-employees and insurers as well. Hill v. West American Ins. Co., 93-915 (La.App. 3 Cir. 3/2/94), 635 So.2d 1165, 1169, writ denied 94-1630 (La. 9/30/94), 642 So.2d 881. Thus, determination of whether plaintiffs are limited to workers' compensation and are precluded from pursuing a tort claim against Dugal is based on whether they were in the course and scope of their employment at the time of the accident.
The principal criteria for determining course of employment are time, place and employment activity. Mundy v. Department of Health and Human Resources, 593 So.2d 346, 349 (La. 1992).
The determination of whether an accident arises out of employment focuses on the character or source of the risk which gives rise to the injury and on the relatio
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