 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Childs v. State ex rel. Okla. State Univ.3/9/1993
SUMMARY JUDGMENTS AFFIRMED.
The opinion of the court was delivered by: OPALA, Justice.
The dispositive issue for review is whether the amended provisions of 51 O.S.Supp. 1988 § 155 (14) of the Governmental Tort Claims Act [Tort Claims Act] extended the State's immunity to include its liability to persons, not then in the employ of the State of Oklahoma, who were covered for the injurious event in suit by the workers' compensation regime of any state. We answer in the affirmative.
I
THE ANATOMY OF LITIGATION
In 1989 John Childs and Randy Hood [Childs and Hood], both Texas residents, were in Oklahoma while in the course of their employment with the same private employer. The men were traveling together in a car driven by Childs when they collided with a vehicle owned by the State of Oklahoma [State] and operated by a State employee. Childs was killed in the accident and Hood received bodily injury.
Hood and Child's widow [together called plaintiffs] received benefits under the provisions of Texas workers' compensation law. Relying on the Governmental Tort Claims Act, the plaintiffs brought separate actions against the State for the wrongful death of Childs and for bodily injury to Hood. The State, acknowledging its employee's negligence, invoked the immunity of § 155(14) [Subdiv. 14.] The trial court's summary judgment for the State in both cases rests on the Subdiv. 14 immunity of the State from responsibility for "any loss to any person covered by any workers' compensation act." The plaintiffs brought separate appeals which stand consolidated for disposition by a single opinion.
II
SUBDIV. 14'S THIRD AMENDMENT OF 1988 CLEARLY WAS INTENDED TO IMMUNIZE THE STATE FROM LIABILITY FOR WRONGFUL DEATH OF, OR BODILY INJURY TO, PERSONS COVERED BY THE WORKERS' COMPENSATION REGIME OF ANY STATE
Relying on Subdiv. 14's third amended text of 1988 vintage, the State asserts that it is immunized from liability if a non governmental employee's claim or loss results from an injury that is covered by the compensation law of any state. Because the plaintiffs received benefits under the compensation law of Texas, the State argues, both claims are barred by Subdiv. 14.
The Legislature has enacted three consecutive versions of Subdiv. 14, the most recent in 1988. This court has construed the first two of these; the third is before us today. The issue pressed by the plaintiffs calls for an examination of the 1988 amendment in light of Subdiv. 14's legislative history and of our extant jurisprudence that construes the earlier versions in the factual context of decided cases.
A.
Subdiv. 14 - Its First-Generation Text and Meaning
Jarvis v. City of Stillwater held that the text of 51 O.S. 1981 § 155 (14) did not confer upon the State immunity for harm to non governmental employees. There, a private company's employee was injured when he came in contact with high-voltage lines owned and maintained by the City of Stillwater [City]. After receiving compensation benefits from his employer, the employee sued the City for negligence under the Political Subdivisions Tort Claims Act . The 1981 version provided that a political subdivision shall not be liable "if a loss results from . . . ny claim covered by the Oklahoma Workers' Compensation Act. . . ." We held that in that context the Subdiv. 14 immunity extended solely to tort liability pressed by political subdivision employees covered by the workers' compensation regime. The version of Subdiv. 14 construed in Jarvis came to be amended with the repeal
Page 1 2 3 4 Oklahoma Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|