Case Title: Ex Parte Bender Shipbuilding & Repair Co.

Citation: 879 So. 2d 577

Docket Number: 1020545

State: alabama

Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Date: 2003-10-03T00:00:00Z

Document:
879 So. 2d 577 (2003)
Ex parte BENDER SHIPBUILDING & REPAIR COMPANY, INC.
(In re Bender Shipbuilding & Repair Co., Inc.
v.
Faron Walley).
1020545.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
October 3, 2003.
*578 Douglas L. Brown and Craig D. Martin of Armbrecht Jackson, LLP, Mobile, for petitioner.
John R. Spencer, Mobile; and C.S. Chiepalich, Mobile, for respondent.
LYONS, Justice.
Bender Shipbuilding & Repair Company, Inc., appealed to the Court of Civil Appeals from a judgment entered on a jury verdict in favor of Faron Walley. The Court of Civil Appeals affirmed the judgment. Bender Shipbuilding & Repair Co. v. Walley, 879 So. 2d 568 (Ala.Civ.App. 2002). We granted certiorari review; we reverse and remand.
The Court of Civil Appeals stated the facts as follows:
879 So. 2d  at 570-73 (footnotes omitted).
The Court of Civil Appeals rejected Bender's argument that Walley's claims were preempted by the Longshoremen and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, 33 U.S.C. § 901 et seq. ("the LHWCA"). That court concluded that the cases cited by Bender were distinguishable because they involved benefits the LHWCA requires an employer to pay. Continuing, the Court of Civil Appeals stated:
879 So. 2d  at 576-77.
The Court of Civil Appeals' reasoning is based upon a faulty premise, i.e., that Bender's program that provided light-duty work to injured employees provided a benefit outside of the LHWCA. The court is correct that the LHWCA does not require an employer to provide light-duty work. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has defined an employer's obligation to an injured employee under the LHWCA as follows:
Pool Co. v. Cooper, 274 F.3d 173, 175 n. 2 (5th Cir.2001) (citing Louisiana Ins. Guar. Ass'n v. Abbott, 40 F.3d 122, 126 (5th Cir.1994)) (emphasis added). Under the LHWCA, once an employee establishes a prima facie case of total disability, the burden then shifts to the employer to establish the availability of other jobs the employee is capable of performing. Abbott, 40 F.3d  at 126. See also New Orleans Stevedores v. Turner, 661 F.2d 1031, 1032 (5th Cir.1981). The availability of "suitable alternative employment" is what distinguishes partial disability from total disability. Abbott, 40 F.3d  at 126.
An employer can meet its burden of establishing the availability of "suitable alternative employment" by offering the claimant a light-duty job in its facility. Dardin v. Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., 18 BRBS 224, 226 (1986)[1]*583 ("It is beyond question that an employer can meet its burden of establishing suitable alternate employment by supplying light duty work to claimant."). Therefore, an employer charged pursuant to the LHWCA with compensating an injured employee may provide light-duty work for an injured employee in certain circumstances and thereby avoid the obligation to pay that employee temporary total disability benefits that might otherwise apply. If the employer is not able to establish that suitable alternate employment is available, either in its own facility or elsewhere, then the LHWCA obligates the employer to pay disability benefits to the employee. See Manigault v. Stevens Shipping Co., 22 BRBS 332 (1989).
Bender had such a light-duty program. Jerry Davis, Bender's safety and risk manager at the time of Walley's disability, testified as follows:
Davis further testified that Bender's light-duty-work program was available only to employees who were making claims against Bender for compensation benefits and for whom Bender was directly responsible for paying LHWCA benefits.
In view of the foregoing, and recognizing that "the degree of an employee's disability is primarily an economic rather than a medical concept," Pool Co., 274 F.3d  at 175 n. 2, we conclude that the availability of a light-duty-work program, while not mandated by the LHWCA, is an economic benefit an employer can offer its employees in lieu of its obligation to pay temporary total disability benefits. Although the LHWCA does not require that such a benefit be provided, claims regarding the mishandling of an economic benefit such as light-duty work, made available to an employee as the employer's alternative means of complying with the LHWCA, would arise under the LHWCA.
Walley's complaint alleges:
Walley sought compensatory and punitive damages against Bender for "fraud, deceit, misrepresentation and mental anguish." The trial court submitted Walley's claim to the jury as an "intentional fraud claim," and the Court of Civil Appeals also refers to the claim in that manner. Despite being labeled an "intentional fraud claim," however, Walley's claim is actually a claim alleging that Bender, intentionally or in bad faith, refused to award a benefit to him and, in so doing, intentionally inflicted emotional distress. We treat a pleading and any other filing according to its substance, rather than its form or its style. Breaux v. Bailey, 789 So. 2d 204 (Ala.2000). Therefore, the issue in this case is whether Walley's claim against Bender for its intentional refusal to pay benefits in the form of alternative employment at full pay is preempted by the LHWCA.
Most federal courts that have examined the question whether an employee's state-law claims alleging intentional or bad-faith refusal to pay LHWCA compensation, wrongful termination of LHWCA benefits, or the intentional infliction of emotional distress as a result of failure to pay or the termination of LHWCA benefits have concluded that such claims are preempted by the LHWCA. See, e.g., Barnard v. Zapata Haynie Corp., 975 F.2d 919, 920 (1st Cir.1992) (holding that the plaintiff's claim for the employer's intentional infliction of emotional distress in failing to pay benefits was preempted by the LHWCA and that the LHWCA is the "exclusive remedy for [an employer's] failure to make timely [compensation] payments, irrespective of [the employer's] reasons for nonpayment"); Atkinson v. Gates, McDonald & Co., 838 F.2d 808, 812 (5th Cir.1988) (holding that a state-law cause of action addressed by the LHWCA is preempted and that "the LHWCA is plainly preemptive of any state law claim for intentional or bad faith wrongful refusal to pay benefits due under the [LHWCA]"); Texas Employers' Ins. Ass'n v. Jackson, 820 F.2d 1406 (5th Cir.1987), rev'd on other grounds, 862 F.2d 491 (5th Cir.1988) (en banc); Hall v. C & P Tel. Co., 809 F.2d 924 (D.C.Cir.1987) (claims alleging intentional infliction of emotional distress in bad-faith refusal to make timely compensation payments fall within the exclusivity provisions of the LHWCA); Sample v. Johnson, 771 F.2d 1335 (9th Cir.1985) (claims for wrongful refusal to pay or delay in paying LHWCA benefits are preempted by the LHWCA).
In Jackson, a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit concluded that the employee's bad-faith claims brought under Texas law were preempted by the LHWCA. Jackson had sued his employer's LHWCA insurance carrier in state court, alleging bad-faith insurance practices on the part of the carrier. The Jackson court explained that federal law preempts state law in three *585 circumstances: first, when Congress explicitly expresses its intent to preempt state law; second, when Congress's intent to displace state law can be inferred through the comprehensiveness or pervasiveness of the federal regulatory scheme; and third, when state law conflicts with federal law or interferes with the accomplishment and execution of Congress's purpose. 820 F.2d  at 1411. The panel then concluded that the LHWCA preempted the state law invoked by Jackson in all three circumstances. Id. That portion of the panel's decision was affirmed by the Fifth Circuit sitting en banc, although the en banc court reversed the decision on other grounds. See 862 F.2d  at 496 n. 7.
In Atkinson, the Fifth Circuit noted that "a majority of courts have held that workers' compensation statutes, particularly where they address the subject of delayed or withheld compensation benefits, provide the exclusive remedy in that respect." 838 F.2d  at 813. The Fifth Circuit then quoted the following from 2A Larson, Workmen's Compensation Law § 68.34(c), 13-145 to -146 (1987):
838 F.2d  at 814.
The foregoing observation in Atkinson points out another reason most courts hold that claims alleging an employer's intentional refusal to pay benefits are preempted by the LHWCA. The LHWCA imposes upon employers a penalty for withholding benefits for any reason; it does not distinguish between good-faith or bad-faith withholding of benefits. 838 F.2d  at 812. As the Court of Civil Appeals noted, Bender paid the statutory penalty to Walley imposed by the Department of Labor upon its determination that Bender owed compensation benefits to Walley.
Walley relies upon Martin v. Travelers Insurance Co., 497 F.2d 329 (1st Cir.1974), to support his argument that his claims against Bender for refusing to make light-duty work available to him can properly be brought in state court. In Martin, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held that the LHWCA may not preclude a claimant from pursuing a state-law action where the basis of the state-law claims does not arise out of or in the course of the claimant's employment. The unsuccessful employee in Jackson also relied upon Martin. The Fifth Circuit in Jackson declined to follow Martin, basing that decision not only upon its own conclusions about the preemptive effect of the LHWCA, but also upon the United States Supreme Court's reasoning in Allis-Chalmers Corp. v. Lueck, 471 U.S. 202, 105 S. Ct. 1904, 85 L. Ed. 2d 206 (1985). In Lueck, an employee sued his employer and the employer's insurer in state court, alleging *586 bad-faith failure to pay disability benefits. The Supreme Court of Wisconsin held that the employee could proceed with his action in state court. The United States Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, holding that § 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act preempted the state tort claim and emphasizing the importance of national uniformity in enforcing the terms of collective-bargaining agreements. The Jackson court noted that although the Supreme Court in Lueck "purported not to decide whether a state bad faith failure to pay a tort claim would be preempted by `other federal laws governing employment or benefit plans,' the reasoning in Lueck is just as compelling, if not more so, when applied to the situation in the instant case." 820 F.2d  at 1413-14 (quoting Lueck, 471 U.S.  at 220, 105 S.Ct. 1904). Furthermore, in Barnard v. Zapata Haynie Corp., supra, the First Circuit pointed out that in Martin the insurance carrier had stopped payment on drafts it had issued to the employee. Distinguishing Martin, the First Circuit stated:
975 F.2d  at 920.
In light of the weight of the authority holding that an employee's state-law claims alleging the intentional refusal or failure to pay benefits against an employer covered by the LHWCA are preempted by the LHWCA, we conclude that Walley's claim against Bender for failure to confer a benefit offered only as a means of the employer's satisfying its obligations under the LHWCA is likewise precluded. We reverse the judgment of the Court of Civil Appeals and remand the case for that court to direct the trial court to enter a judgment in favor of Bender.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
HOUSTON, SEE, BROWN, HARWOOD, WOODALL, and STUART, JJ., concur.
JOHNSTONE, J., recuses himself.
[1]  The cite to 18 BRBS 224 refers to a case decided by the Benefits Review Board of the United States Department of Labor, the administrative appellate tribunal established by the LHWCA with jurisdiction over LHWCA claims.