Opinion ID: 1831724
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: comparative negligence of an employer in a worker's suit against a third party tortfeasor

Text: Reed v. Shell Offshore Inc., 872 F.2d 680 (5th Cir.1989), recognized that Louisiana's courts of appeal had refused to apportion fault between a solidary obligor and a statutorily immune employer. Reed held that the trial court did not err in refusing to submit the employer's liability to the jury. See Snyder v. Taylor, 523 So.2d 1348 (La. App.2d Cir.1988), writ denied, 531 So.2d 267; Senez v. Grumman Flxible Corp., 518 So.2d 574 (La.App. 4th Cir.1987), writ denied, 521 So.2d 1151; and Chatelain v. Project Square 221, 505 So.2d 177 (La.App. 4th Cir.1987), writ denied, 508 So.2d 71. Reed followed these Louisiana cases, which are contrary to Nance. Also see Davis v. Commercial Union Ins. Co., 892 F.2d 378 (5th Cir.1990); Myers v. Pennzoil Co., 889 F.2d 1457 (5th Cir.1989); and Franklin v. Oilfield Heavy Haulers, 478 So.2d 549 (La. App.3d Cir.1985), writ denied, 481 So.2d 1330 (La.1986). The trial court had persuasive authority for not presenting the question of Steel Tank's negligence to the jury. Act 534 of 1983 was effective August 30, 1983, shortly after this accident. It amended LSA-C.C.P. art. 1812(C)(2) relative to jury interrogatories to allow a jury to decide: If appropriate, whether another person, whether party or not, other than the person suffering injury, death, or loss, was at fault,.... Although the effective date of Act 534 of 1983 was after this accident, the statute is procedural. Lemire, supra . Despite the statute's use of permissive may language, a trial judge is required, absent waiver by all parties, to give the statutory interrogatories. Lemire, supra . Implicit in Lemire is a finding that the requested interrogatory was appropriate because there was evidence of fault on the part of the Sewerage and Water Board, not a party defendant in the jury trial. Here, on the contrary, the interrogatory was not appropriate because there was no evidence to support a finding of negligence by Steel Tank. Moreover, Act 534 of 1983 does not specify that a jury must determine the fault of employers. Since the compensation principle supercedes the question of fault by giving employers tort immunity, employers appear to be excluded from the Act. See Guidry v. Frank J. Guidry Oil Co., Inc., docket nos. 91-C-0078 and 91-C-0111, ___ So.2d ___ (La.1991). To require interrogatories on employers' fault without express legislative direction would be an unjustified judicial innovation.