Opinion ID: 2469559
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: applicability of workers' compensation law

Text: Should we decide the trial court erred in granting summary judgment, appellee requests that we provide guidance to the trial court on the matter of its jurisdiction to determine the applicability of the Workers' Compensation Law, Ark.Code Ann. §§ 11-9-101 to -1001 (1987 and Supp.1995), and the agricultural farm labor exception to the definition of employment in section 11-9-102(12)(A)(iii). In his second amended and substituted complaint, appellant alleged appellee was engaged in the business of selling, delivering and spreading fertilizers and manure in agriculture in Washington County, Arkansas. Appellant also alleged that he was hired by appellee to operate certain spreaders used in appellee's business and that appellee was an employer as that term is defined by the Workers' Compensation Law and was therefore bound to provide compensation coverage to appellant. Appellant alleged further that appellee failed to provide such coverage. Appellee denied that he was required to provide workers' compensation coverage to appellant and moved to strike as impertinent and immaterial the portions of appellant's complaint alleging to the contrary. Alternatively, appellee moved that appellant be required to elect between the remedies of filing a claim for worker's compensation with the Worker's Compensation Commission or pursuing a cause of action for tort in circuit court. The trial court denied both motions, and after a hearing on the question of whether it had jurisdiction to determine the application of the Workers' Compensation Law to this case, entered an order concluding its jurisdiction of the coverage question was concurrent. Appellee contends the Commission has exclusive jurisdiction to determine the applicability of the Workers' Compensation Law and cites two sources of secondary authority addressing the question of whether the courts or the agency should determine the applicability of worker's compensation laws to a given case. Daniel Keating, Employee Injury Cases: Should Courts or Boards Decide Whether Workers' Compensation Laws Apply?, 53 U.Chi.L.Rev. 258 (1986); 2A Arthur Larson, The Law of Workmen's Compensation § 67.60 (1995). Appellant does not respond to this argument. While both sources cited by appellee suggest that exclusive jurisdiction in the agency is superior to concurrent jurisdiction in the courts and agency, our cases suggest to the contrary. See, e.g., Lively v. Libbey Memorial Physical Medical Ctr., Inc., 317 Ark. 5, 875 S.W.2d 507 (1994) (indicating that either the Workers' Compensation Commission or the circuit court must determine the applicability of the Workers' Compensation Law prior to the circuit court's granting of summary judgment). Therefore, we conclude the trial court did not err in holding that it had concurrent jurisdiction to determine the applicability of the Workers' Compensation Law. We observe, however, that although the trial court ruled it had concurrent jurisdiction to determine the applicability of the Workers' Compensation Law to this case, it never ruled whether the Workers' Compensation Law did or did not apply to this case. The applicability issue was left unresolved below, and is therefore waived on appeal. Brumley v. Naples, 320 Ark. 310, 896 S.W.2d 860 (1995).