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Peterson v. Wells Fargo Armored Services Corp.3/20/2000
er Industries, a subsidiary which was dissolved prior to Oelcher's death; however, someone had crossed out Baker Industries and written in by hand "Borg- Warner Security Corporation." The production also included a revised schedule A that indicated that the named insured is completed to read Borg-Warner Security Corporation and Wells Fargo Armored, among others. This partial production of only three pages of the Continental policy was inconclusive as to whether Wells Fargo had workers' compensation insurance coverage for its employees on August 24, 1994. The inconclusive nature of the September 1995 production was borne out by the documents Wells Fargo later filed as a supplement to its motion for a summary judgment. These later documents included an endorsement to the Continental policy which specifically provided that the policy covered only Baker Industries and specifically excluded all other Borg- Warner Corporation operations from the policy. The endorsement indicates that Baker Industries or its insurance agent may issue certificates of insurance to parties that have an interest in the Continental policy, but Wells Fargo did not file any such certificate of insurance.
Substantial compliance with the mandatory filing requirement exists when the circumstances accomplish the same purposes as the filing requirement. See Shope, 92 N.M. at 510, 590 P.2d at 658. The rationale for this result is evident: when an employer maintains workers' compensation insurance and provides information to an injured worker concerning the insurance that enables the worker to obtain compensation, the purposes of the Act are fulfilled and the employer is entitled to the Act's protections from suits in tort. See generally id. On the other hand, when an employer does not provide certainty that coverage exists, the worker or the worker's dependents do not know how to proceed to obtain compensation for an injury . When this uncertainty continues for an extended period of time, the likely result is litigation rather than the efficient resolution of the claim that the Act contemplates. See Mirabal, 77 N.M. at 578, 425 P.2d at 742 (stating that one purpose of the prior workers' compensation act was to avoid uncertainty in litigation).
In general, if the employer files the appropriate document before the worker files a tort suit, the employer has provided sufficient certainty and has substantially complied with the filing requirement such that the worker cannot sue in tort. Compare Mirabal, 77 N.M. at 578, 425 P.2d at 742 (holding that employer substantially complied by paying benefits and filing the policy eight months before the worker filed a tort suit); Shope, 92 N.M. at 510-11, 590 P.2d at 658-59 (holding that employer substantially complied even though it filed the proof of insurance fifteen days late because the filing was two months before the common law suit was filed); Quintana, 80 N.M. at 590, 458 P.2d at 842 (holding that employer substantially complied even though proof of coverage was filed after the accident that caused the employee's death but before employee filed suit); with Security Trust, 93 N.M. at 37-38, 596 P.2d at 250-51 (holding no compliance where employer did not file the appropriate document until after the worker filed a tort suit); Montano, 89 N.M. at 90-91, 547 P.2d at 573-74 (holding no compliance where employer never filed an appropriate document and never produced a policy of compensation insurance). However, the substantial compliance doctrine requires not only that the employer file proof of insurance coverage before the worker files a suit, but also that the employer actually had maintained workers' compensation insurance coverage for its employees as of the date
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