Opinion ID: 1116091
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: rights of third parties against employer

Text: In Pan American Petroleum Corporation v. Maddux Well Service, Wyo., 586 P.2d 1220 (1978), we considered whether a third party who is sued by an employee for damages resulting from injuries covered by worker's compensation can maintain an indemnity action against the employer with respect to those injuries and damages. We first reviewed the provisions of the Wyoming Worker's Compensation Act, §§ 27-12-101 through XX-XX-XXX, W.S. 1977, enacted by our legislature. We found that the act itself barred the employee and those claiming under him from suing his employer to recover damages for the same work-related injury or death, but it did not expressly bar actions by other third parties against the employer. We then considered the effect of Article 10, § 4 of the Constitution of the State of Wyoming upon the claims of third parties against an employer contributing to the worker's compensation fund as required by the act. Article 10, § 4 of the Wyoming Constitution provides in part as follows: The right of each employee to compensation from such fund shall be in lieu of and shall take the place of any and all rights of action against any employer contributing as required by law to such fund in favor of any person or persons by reason of any such injuries or death.  (Emphasis added.) We held that the provisions of Article 10, § 4, supra, did not bar suits against an employer by third parties seeking indemnity where such claim for indemnity was based upon a contract between the employer and the third party in which the employer agreed to such indemnification. Thus, in proper circumstances, we have said that a third party may assert a claim for indemnity against the employer for all or part of a loss that may result to the third party because of the employee's injuries. Wyoming Johnson, Inc. v. Stag Industries, Inc., Wyo., 662 P.2d 96 (1983). In support of our conclusion that the Worker's Compensation Act and Article 10, § 4 of the Wyoming Constitution permit such claims against the employer, we noted that the third party was not a party to the worker's compensation relationship, received no benefit as a result of the same and was held, therefore, to have lost no rights possessed by that third party. Pan American Corporation v. Maddux Well Service, supra. In this case Bailey was paid worker's compensation. He was barred from suing his employer Northern Production. The worker's compensation award did not affect his claim against Cities Service. Bailey could, therefore, pursue his claim for injuries against Cities Service and, if Cities Service was also at fault and a cause of Bailey's injuries, it was potentially liable for the entire amount of damage resulting from the injuries. It is said that the most evenly-balanced controversy in all of compensation law is the question whether a third party in an action by the employee can get contribution or indemnity from the employer, when the employer's negligence has caused or contributed to the injury. 2A Larson, The Law of Workmen's Compensation § 76.11. With the adoption of comparative negligence, § 1-1-109, W.S. 1977, a method was provided for determining the percentage of negligence attributable to each participant which was a cause of a plaintiff's injuries. The percentage of negligence of everyone at fault, including non-parties, should be determined by the fact finder in arriving at the 100 percent of negligence that caused the injuries. Thus, the trier of fact should find the percentage of negligence attributable to each of the actors who have proximately caused the plaintiff's injuries regardless of whether the actors have been named as parties to the lawsuit. Palmeno v. Cashen, Wyo., 627 P.2d 163, 165-166 (1981). We said that was necessary notwithstanding the fact that plaintiff may have chosen not to sue such non-parties and may have structured his pleading in such a way that no claim was asserted against them. Board of County Com'rs of Campbell County v. Ridenour, Wyo., 623 P.2d 1174 (1981). In this case, Bailey sues only Cities Service asserting a claim against Cities Service because of its negligence. Cities Service in its defense claims that the accident and plaintiff's injuries were caused by the negligence of Northern Production. It is likely that in allocating the 100 percent of negligence which caused plaintiff's injuries among the parties, it will be necessary that Northern Production be on the verdict form and the percentage of its negligence determined. For purposes of illustration only, let us assume that plaintiff's negligence is assessed at 0 percent, Cities Services negligence at 50 percent, and the negligence of Northern Production at 50 percent, and damages determined to be in the amount of $100,000. Plaintiff, in this example, can recover the entire amount of his loss, $100,000, from Cities Service which is responsible for only 50 percent of the fault causing his injury. This is so because at common law tortfeasors were jointly and severally liable to the injured party who could recover the entire amount of his loss from either or both. 57 Am.Jur.2d Negligence § 189. The common law joint and several liability of tortfeasors was preserved with the enactment of § 1-1-110(h), W.S. 1977, which provides: (h) W.S. 1-1-110 through 1-1-113 do not affect the common law liability of the several joint tortfeasors to have judgments recovered and payment made from them individually by the injured person for the whole injury. This brings us to the question we must determine in this case. Assuming that Cities Service is required to pay 100 percent of a judgment for injuries which, at least in theory in our hypothesis, were caused by the 50 percent fault of Northern Production, should Cities Service be entitled to recover by indemnity from Northern Production its share of the damage? If worker's compensation were not involved, there would be no question but that Cities Service could recover from Northern Production by way of contribution pursuant to the provisions of § 1-1-110, W.S. 1977, infra, the portion of the judgment represented by the percentage of negligence attributable to Northern Production.