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Arteaga v. Ibarra8/25/1993
Per Curiam:
Appellant Victor Arteaga was injured in a vehicular accident while en route to his home in Colorado after completing a job in Steamboat, Nevada, for respondent Basic Industries, Inc. The truck in which Arteaga was a passenger was owned by Basic and operated by its foreman, respondent Luis Ibarra. Basic filed a workers' compensation claim with the Nevada State Industrial Insurance System (SIIS) on behalf of Arteaga. Arteaga received SIIS benefits and was ultimately awarded approximately $19,000 in full settlement of his claim.
During the pendency of the SIIS proceedings, Arteaga filed the instant negligence action against Basic and Ibarra. Summary judgment was granted in favor of Basic and Ibarra on the grounds that Arteaga's remedy under the Nevada Industrial Insurance Act (NIIA) was exclusive and that his acceptance of workers' compensation benefits extinguished any common law claim he may have had against respondents.
We elect not to address the issue concerning the exclusivity of the NIIA remedy since the district court was correct in determining that Arteaga waived any common law remedy he may have had by accepting a final SIIS award. The entry of summary judgment against Arteaga was therefore proper.
FACTS
The antecedent facts to this controversy reflect that Arteaga was a Colorado resident who had been hired by Basic, a Colorado-based company, to insulate pipe on an as-needed basis. The job required Arteaga to travel to locations outside Colorado. When the employees were on location, their paychecks were mailed to a nearby post office. At the conclusion of a particular assignment, the workers were laid off until they were called to a new job assignment. The final paychecks for work on completed jobs were held at Basic's offices in Grand Junction, Colorado, for pick up by the employees, most of whom resided in or near Grand Junction.
Several weeks before the accident at issue, Basic hired Arteaga to insulate pipe at a power plant in Steamboat, Nevada. Arteaga and another employee left for Steamboat in a company truck driven by Arteaga's brother-in-law, Ibarra. Four other employees traveled to the job site in their personal vehicles. The Steamboat assignment was completed in the late morning hours of October 14, 1986. Although the men received their entire daily meal allowance for that date, they were to be paid only for the hours
[109 Nev. 772, Page 774]
actually worked. Six of the men, including Ibarra and Arteaga, left Steamboat at approximately 2:00 p.m. to return to Colorado; the seventh worker returned to his residence in Texas.
While en route to Colorado, the personal vehicle of one of the workers broke down and was loaded onto the Basic truck and trailer driven by Ibarra. The driver and passengers of the disabled vehicle joined another member of their group. Ibarra, Arteaga and a worker named Contreras continued toward Colorado in the Basic truck. Ibarra found that the truck handled differently after the disabled vehicle was loaded onto the trailer. Eventually Ibarra lost control of the truck and it overturned, causing Arteaga to suffer various injuries.
Basic filed a workers' compensation claim on Arteaga's behalf which was accepted by SIIS. In the meantime, Arteaga had retained Colorado counsel to represent him in connection with a potential claim against Basic and Ibarra.
Arteaga's counsel was aware that Basic had filed the workers' compensation claim on his client's behalf and actually represented Arteaga throughout the SIIS proceedings. However, Arteaga's attorney questioned whether his client was within the course of employment when th
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