Case Title: Barron v. CNA Ins. Co.

Citation: 678 So. 2d 735

Docket Number: 1941294, 1941296, 1950013, 1950248

State: alabama

Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Date: 1996-03-15T00:00:00Z

Document:
678 So. 2d 735 (1996)
Joseph BARRON, et al.
v.
CNA INSURANCE COMPANY.
Joseph BARRON, et al.
v.
FIREMAN'S FUND INSURANCE COMPANIES.
Joseph BARRON, et al.
v.
COMMERCIAL UNION INSURANCE COMPANY.
Joseph BARRON, et al.
v.
Vernon W. GIBSON, Sr., et al.
Joseph BARRON, et al.
v.
Richard Greene REYNOLDS and Garry Wayne Dodson.
1941294 to 1941296, 1950013 and 1950248.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
March 15, 1996.
*736 Roger L. Lucas and Leigh Ann King of Lucas, Alvis & Wash, P.C., Birmingham, for Appellants.
Andrew P. Campbell, Charles M. Elmer and David M. Loper of Leitman, Siegal, Payne & Campbell, P.C., Birmingham, for Commercial Union Insurance Company.
John M. Laney, Jr., Richard E. Smith, Deborah Alley Smith, and Rhonda Pitts Chambers of Rives & Peterson, Birmingham, for CNA Insurance Company.
John W. Clark, Jr. of Clark & Scott, P.C., Birmingham, for Fireman's Fund Insurance Companies.
Frank E. Lankford, Jr. of Huie, Fernambucq & Stewart, Birmingham, for Vernon Gibson, Sr., Vernon Gibson, Jr., James Sykes, James Ross, Richard Greene Reynolds and Garry Wayne Dodson.
M. Christian King and Madeline H. Haikala of Lightfoot, Franklin & White, L.L.C., Birmingham, John N. Leach, Jr. of Helmsing, Lyons, Sims & Leach, Mobile, for amici curiae 190 former and current employees of International Paper Company and Reynolds Metals Company who have been named as defendants in negligence and wantonness actions in Alabama, in support of appellees.
Robert D. Hunter and William L. Waudby of Lange, Simpson, Robinson & Somerville, Birmingham, for amici curiae 62 individuals *737 sued in co-employee actions, in support of appellees.
Jesse C. Gardner of Gardner, Middle-brooks & Fleming, Mobile, David Shelby of Shelby & Cartee, Birmingham, Brent M. Rosanthal, David Denny, and Jennifer Currie, of Baron & Budd, P.C., Dallas, Texas, for amici curiae various labor organizations representing "persons ... who came into contact with asbestos-containing products while working in a multitude of occupations".
SHORES, Justice.
These actions arose under § 25-5-11, Ala. Code 1975. The plaintiffs claimed damages for injuries they claimed to have suffered from an alleged exposure to asbestos during their employment. The plaintiffs, Joseph Barron and others,[1] worked for many years at a plant in Pelham operated by Sepco Corporation. For many years, Sepco manufactured asbestos-containing products at that plant, until August 1984, when the plant was destroyed by fire.
The plaintiffs sued their supervisory co-employees Vernon W. Gibson, Sr., Vernon Gibson, Jr., James Sikes, James Ross, Richard Reynolds, and Garry Dodson. They alleged that those co-employees had a duty to provide them with a safe work place and that they had negligently or wantonly breached that duty by exposing the plaintiffs to the hazards of asbestos without providing adequate safety equipment and safety procedures for protection against those hazards. The plaintiffs did not allege willful conduct on the part of these defendants.
The plaintiffs also sued CNA insurance company, Commercial Union Insurance Company, and Fireman's Fund Insurance Companies, Sepco's workers' compensation insurance carriers, alleging that the carriers had negligently performed their undertaking to inspect the plaintiffs' workplace and had negligently failed to recommend to Sepco the complete removal of asbestos. The plaintiffs did not allege willful conduct on the part of these defendants.
The co-employee defendants moved for a judgment on the pleadings arguing that the exclusive remedy provisions of the Workers' Compensation Act, Ala.Code 1975, § 25-5-11, barred the plaintiffs' negligence claims. After oral argument on their motion, the trial court, treating the motion as a motion for summary judgement, entered a judgment in favor of the co-employee defendants and made it final pursuant to Rule 54(b), Ala. R.Civ.P.
The defendant insurance carriers filed motions for summary judgment, arguing that the exclusive remedy provisions of the Workers' Compensation Act, Ala.Code 1975, § 25-5-11, barred the plaintiffs' negligence claims. The trial court entered a summary judgment in favor of the carriers. The trial court's judgment for these defendants expressly stated that it did not address factual issues, but, rather, was based purely on legal principles applied to the pleadings.
The plaintiffs appeal as to each defendant. All five appeals involve the same issue of law.
Do the plaintiffs state a cause of action under Alabama law? Specifically, does the effective date provision, § 14, Act No. 85-41, Ala. Acts 1984-85, have the effect of preserving the plaintiffs' cause of action? The plaintiffs argue that the "effective date" provision of Act No. 85-41 makes the provisions of that Act inapplicable to their claims against co-employees and workers' compensation insurance carriers based on exposure to asbestos that occurred before 1985.
Before 1985, co-employees and workers' compensation carriers could be civilly liable for personal injuries caused by their negligence or wantonness. In 1985, the legislature passed Act No. 85-41, which amended the Alabama Workers' Compensation Act to bar claims against co-employees and workers' compensation carriers based on negligence or wantonness. Under Act No. 85-41, a co-employee or workers' compensation carrier *738 is liable only for willful conduct that results in injury or death to the employee.
As amended by Act No. 85-41, § 25-5-53, part of the workers' compensation law, provides, in pertinent part:
Section 25-5-11(b), also a part of the Workers' Compensation Act (and which also was amended by Act No. 85-41), limits actionable claims by an employee against the employer's workers' compensation insurance carrier to claims based on the "willful conduct" of the carrier. That section provides:
Section 25-5-11(c)(1) defines "willful conduct" in pertinent part as:
The legislative intent, to provide immunity against causes of action except those based on willful conduct, is set forth in § 25-5-14 (which was a part of Act No. 85-41):
The plaintiffs, relying on § 14 of the Act No. 85-41, the effective date provision of that act, contend that Act No. 85-41 does not apply to claims against co-employees or insurance carriers based on injuries resulting from exposure to asbestos where the exposure occurred before 1985. That section provides:
1984-85 Ala. Acts., No. 85-41, § 14.
First, the plaintiffs argue that the first sentence of § 14 saves pre-amendment asbestos-exposure actions. They present the novel argument that their causes of action arose at the time of the injury, i.e., when the asbestos exposure occurred; yet, they say, their causes of action did not accrue until the plaintiffs learned of their asbestos-related condition, citing § 6-2-30, Ala.Code 1975. In other words, the plaintiffs assert that there are two "accrual dates" for their claims: one date to avoid § 14, Act. No. 85-41, and another to bring their claims within the coverage of the statute of limitations. In support of their argument, the plaintiffs argue that the words "arising" and "accruing" are made alternatives by the use of the word "or." We disagree.
The statute of limitations for asbestos claims, Ala.Code 1975, § 6-2-30(b), provides that a civil action for any injury to the person or rights of another resulting from exposure to asbestos shall be "deemed to accrue on the first date the injured party, through reasonable diligence, should have reason to discover the injury giving rise to such civil action." Once the cause of action accrues, the plaintiff has two years to bring an action. Ala.Code 1975, § 6-2-38. In the context of an asbestos case, it is impossible to ascertain the precise date of injury, so the traditional date-of-injury test for determining the date on which a tort cause of action arises cannot realistically be applied. Therefore, for asbestos claims, the legislature created an exception to the traditional date-of-injury test. Under § 6-2-30, the date a cause of action for an asbestos injury "arises" and "accrues" is determined under the discovery provisions of § 6-2-30; it is not the date the plaintiff was exposed to asbestos. These plaintiffs filed their complaints on December 28, 1993. For their complaints to be within the limitations period of § 6-2-30, the causes of action must have "arisen" or "accrued" on or after December 28, 1991; that date was more than six years after the effective date of Act No. 85-41. Because the plaintiffs' causes of action arose after the effective date of Act No. 85-41, we hold that their claims are barred by the exclusive remedy provisions of § 25-5-11.
As to the plaintiffs' argument that the phrase "arising or accruing" must be interpreted as stating alternativesby the use of the word "or"we note that "this court is at liberty in ascertaining the intent of the legislature to construe the disjunctive conjunction `or' and the conjunctive conjunction `and' interchangeably." Ex parte Jordan, *740 592 So. 2d 579, 581 (Ala.1992). In addition, while in certain contexts the words "arise" and "accrue" could have different meanings, we find the terms as used in Act No. 85-41 to be interchangeable.
Next the plaintiffs assert that their negligence and wantonness claims are governed by pre-1985 law because, they say, their alleged "exposure to dangerous conditions" occurred before the effective date of Act No. 85-41, January 9, 1985. We disagree. This Court's interpretation of the last sentence of § 14, Act No. 85-41, is governed by our decision in Twilley v. Daubert Coated Products, Inc., 536 So. 2d 1364 (Ala.1988).
In Twilley, an employee sued his employer under § 25-5-11.1, Ala.Code 1975, another Code section taken from Act No. 85-41, alleging that his employment had been terminated in retaliation for his filing a workers' compensation claim. The employee's injury had occurred in 1984, before the effective date of Act No. 85-41, but the alleged wrongful termination occurred on January 15, 1985, after the effective date of the Act. The employer contended on appeal that the employee could not state a claim for wrongful termination because the employee's workplace injury had occurred before the effective date of the Act. This Court rejected that argument and held:
536 So. 2d  at 1370.
Under Twilley, the second sentence of § 14 relating to "any accident or exposure to injurious condition occurring before the effective date of [Act No. 85-41]" applies only to claims for workers' compensation benefits and not to claims against workers' compensation carriers or co-employees. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs' claims were not preserved under the second sentence of § 14.
In summary, the plaintiffs' claims are barred because those claims do not fall into either of the two savings provisos of § 14. This interpretation is consistent with the legislature's intent to provide immunity against all claims except those based on willful conduct.
1941294AFFIRMED.
1941295AFFIRMED.
1941296AFFIRMED.
1950013AFFIRMED.
1950248AFFIRMED.
HOOPER, C.J., and MADDOX, ALMON, HOUSTON, INGRAM, and COOK, JJ., concur.
BUTTS, J., dissents.
[1]  The other plaintiffs are Grady Buckner, Willie Payne, Matthew Smith, Jimmie Sullens, Garlie Davis, Wayne Cummings, Linnie Cumberland, Joe Gaston, and Thelma Lee Gilliam.
[2]  For a review of the constitutional issues arising from the § 25-5-11 grant of limited immunity as it applies to co-employees and workers' compensation insurance carriers, see Reed v. Brunson, 527 So. 2d 102 (Ala.1988), and Kruszewski v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 653 So. 2d 935 (Ala.1995).