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Payne v. Galen Hospital Corp.8/24/2000
when she filled her prescription. Despite Payne's protestations to the contrary, her argument raises the dual-capacity doctrine. Under that doctrine, an employer normally shielded from liability by the workers' compensation exclusive-remedy principle may become liable in tort to an employee if it occupies, in addition to its capacity as an employer, a second capacity that confers on it obligations independent of those imposed on it as an employer. See 2A A. Larson, The Law of Workmen's Compensation § 72.80. We have never decided whether an employee may use the dual-capacity doctrine to avoid the Act's exclusive-remedy provision. But even if we were inclined to recognize the doctrine, which we do not decide, it does not apply here.
The test for determining dual capacity "is not concerned with how separate or different the second function of the employer is from the first but whether the second function generates obligations unrelated to those from the first, that of employer." Larson, supra, § 72.80. An employee, therefore, may sue her employer in tort only if her employer's second capacity is independent and unrelated to its status as an employer.
Here, the summary-judgment evidence establishes that the hospital only filled Payne's prescription because it was her employer. The hospital pharmacy does not dispense drugs to the general public, and except for employees who have been injured on the job , it does not dispense medications to hospital employees. The hospital pharmacy fills prescriptions for employees only if a doctor has ordered the medication to treat a work-related injury . Before filling these prescriptions, the pharmacy verifies that the employee is a workers' compensation claimant and that a doctor has ordered the prescription to treat a work-related injury. When an employee who has been injured on the job obtains medication for that injury at the hospital pharmacy, the pharmacy collects no money from the employee.
Because the hospital only filled Payne's prescription because she sustained an on-the-job injury , the hospital was acting in its capacity as an employer when it filled Payne's prescription and the dual-capacity doctrine does not apply.
III. Conclusion
We hold that Payne's Toradol reaction is a work-related injury subject to the Workers' Compensation Act's exclusive-remedy provision. Because the Act's exclusive-remedy provision bars Payne's common-law claims against the hospital, the hospital was entitled to summary judgment. Accordingly, we affirm the court of appeals' judgment.
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