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Bonds v. Byrd8/23/2000
Application for rehearing may be filed within the delay allowed by Art. 2166, LSA-CCP.
NOT DESIGNATED FOR PUBLICATION
This case arises out of a one-vehicle accident that occurred in Lincoln Parish. The plaintiffs filed the instant tort suit for personal injury and wrongful death. All defendants answered, raising the defense of the exclusive remedy of workers' compensation and later sought summary judgments based on that defense. The District Court granted summary judgment in favor of three defendants (the "Murphy" defendants) and dismissed all claims against them with prejudice; the plaintiffs appeal this portion of the judgment. However, the court declined to consider the summary judgment motions on behalf of two other defendants (the "Byrd" defendants), instead granting the plaintiffs' motion to dismiss these claims without prejudice; the Byrd defendants appeal this portion of the judgment. For the reasons expressed, we amend and affirm.
Factual and procedural background
The pleadings and summary judgment evidence show that all the parties are domiciled in Georgia. Defendant Michael Murphy owned a company called Mike Murphy Poultry Inc., d/b/a Hodge & Murphy Poultry. Murphy's business was to catch "spent hens" at poultry farms and coordinate transportation to processing plants. He contracted with various poultry farms in Louisiana and surrounding states to perform this work, catching spent hens and removing them from the owner's premises. According to Murphy's affidavit, he arranged with others, including defendant Michael Byrd, to hire chicken-catching crews. Murphy would find sellers, schedule trips for the crews, make sure trucks were available to carry the captured hens to processing, and pay the crew chief a stated amount per thousand hens caught. Byrd was responsible for hiring his crew members, providing their transportation to and from jobs, lodging, and any necessary equipment to perform their work, and paying them. May 1997, Byrd purchased a Ford van to transport his crews.
On May 13, Byrd's crew had checked into a motel room in Ruston, Louisiana, then driven to El Dorado, Arkansas, to catch spent hens, and were returning to Ruston to sleep during the day before proceeding to their next job in Arcadia. Driving south on U.S. 167, the van failed to negotiate a bend in the road, ran off the pavement and struck a tree. As a result of the accident, Curtis Bonds Sr. was killed, and Reginald Summerour and Vincent Wilkens were injured. Byrd also was severely injured.
The plaintiffs, Curtis Bonds Jr., individually and on behalf of his father's estate, Summerour, and Wilkens filed the instant tort suit in Louisiana state court. The defendants included Byrd, their crew chief, and Permanent General Assurance Corp., his insurer (the "Byrd" defendants); Michael Murphy, Mike Murphy Poultry Inc., Hodge & Murphy Poultry, and Southern Hens Inc., one of the poultry farms involved (the "Murphy" defendants).
Both the Byrd defendants and the Murphy defendants filed motions for summary judgment urging that the plaintiffs' exclusive remedy lay in workers' compensation, La. R.S. 23:1032. Although it is not included in the instant record, all parties concede that shortly before the hearing on the motions for summary judgment, the plaintiffs filed a motion for voluntary dismissal of the suit without prejudice, La. C.C.P. art. 1671. After the hearing, the District Court denied the plaintiffs' motion to dismiss without prejudice as to the Murphy defendants and granted those defendants' motion for summary judgment. The court further found, however, that pursuant to Louisiana conflict of laws, La. C.C. art. 3544 (1), Georgia law ap
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