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Buerkley v. Aspen Meadows Limited Partnership5/17/1999
APPEAL FROM: District Court of the Thirteenth Judicial District, In and for the County of Yellowstone, The Honorable Russell C. Fagg, Judge presiding.
Submitted on Briefs: October 15, 1999
. The plaintiff, Trevor Buerkley, filed suit in the District Court for the Thirteenth Judicial District in Yellowstone County to recover damages from the defendants, Aspen Meadows, Parkview Convalescent Care, and Bill McLain and Steve McLain, for an injury to his hand. The District Court awarded summary judgment in favor of the defendants. We reverse the judgment of the District Court.
. The issue on appeal is whether the District Court erred when it concluded that the Workers' Compensation Act was Buerkley's exclusive remedy.
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
. Trevor Buerkley was hired by Parkview Convalescent Care as a maintenance worker on August 9, 1993. Prior to the start of his employment, Buerkley was not asked to submit an employment application, nor was he required to comply with any of Parkview's other existing hiring procedures. Until the time of his injury , two months after he started work at Parkview, Buerkley worked a normal forty-hour week but did not use a time clock as other employees did, his paycheck was not drawn from Parkview's payroll account, and no payroll deductions were taken from his paycheck. In other words, Parkview employed Buerkley "under the table." Buerkley was not held out by Parkview to others as its employee. Furthermore, Buerkley was not reported as an employee on the payroll reports provided to the Montana Health Network's Workers' Compensation Insurance Trust by which Parkview's employees were provided with coverage for work-related injuries.
. Aspen Meadows is a limited partnership which operates a retirement community. It is a separate business entity; however, it has common principals with Parkview. The two homes occasionally shared personnel and other resources. On October 8, 1993, Aspen's maintenance director contacted the maintenance director for Parkview and asked him to send Buerkley to Aspen with one of Parkview's snowblowers to clear the remains of an early snow from Aspen's parking lot. While Buerkley was operating the snowblower at Aspen, the teeth of the machine became blocked with heavy, wet snow. Buerkley inserted his left hand into the snowblower to clear the blockage and seriously injured his hand.
. Sometime after the accident, Buerkley completed an employment application and portions of other employee paperwork for both Parkview and Aspen. Both applications were back-dated to reflect an employment date for Buerkley of September 27, 1993, prior to the date of his injury . Beginning October 14, 1993, Buerkley's paychecks began to reflect deductions for workers' compensation, Medicare, and FICA; however, they were still drawn on an account which was not Parkview's regular payroll account. Beginning October 25, 1993, Buerkley began using Parkview's time clock to record his hours worked. After the accident, Buerkley was also issued at least one paycheck by Aspen, despite the fact that the morning he was injured was the only time he performed any labor at Aspen. The paycheck from Aspen was also drawn on an account different from its regular payroll account.
. On December 8, 1993, Aspen filed an "Employer's First Report of Notice" with Montana Health Network. Compensation Adjusters, Inc. was authorized by contract to adjust MHN claims and to pay all benefits. It determined that Buerkley was entitled to benefits and paid all medical claims and compensation benefits. Compensation Adjusters also made Buerkley a settlement offer for a release of any future permanent parti
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