Opinion ID: 1812516
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Use of Common Law Principles of Contribution in Workers' Compensation Cases

Text: Long before contribution or apportionment was expressly recognized in the Act, we applied common law principles of contribution in worker's compensation cases. Silva v. Maplewood Care Ctr., 582 N.W.2d 566, 568 (Minn.1998) (In Minnesota, common law principles of equitable apportionment have long been applied to permit apportionment between insurance carriers when two or more successive injuries combine to produce the final disability.). We first recognized the authority of a compensation judge to apportion liability among successive insurers for injuries occurring under the same employment, and then we concluded that the natural extension of that reasoning was that a compensation judge had authority to allow an employer to seek contribution from another employer for compensation arising out of injuries occurring under each employment. In Haverland v. Twin City Milk Producers Ass'n, we summarized our reasoning as follows: [W]e have approved apportionment of liability for disability resulting from successive accidents under the same employer between two insurers, one of whom represented the employer at the time of the first accident and the other of whom represented him when the second occurred. Carpenter v. Arrowhead Steel Products Co., 194 Minn. 79, 259 N.W. 535; Peniston v. City of Marshall, 192 Minn. 132, 255 N.W. 860. It appears reasonable that, if liability for compensation arising from two or more industrial accidents under the same employer may be apportioned between his successive insurers, it should likewise be apportionable between successive employers where industrial accidents are sustained under each of them, both of which contribute to the disability of the employee.        [W]e think of no reason why the last employer held primarily liable for the compensation under such circumstances should not have the right to seek proportionate contribution from a former employer under whom the employee sustained an industrial accident which created his physical impairment and which contributed to his final disability. 273 Minn. 481, 488-90, 142 N.W.2d 274, 280 (1966) (citation omitted). Likewise, in DeNardo v. Divine Redeemer Memorial Hospital, we confirmed that we have used the concept of apportionment to support contribution among successive employers. 450 N.W.2d 290, 292-93 (Minn.1990). We said: Common law principles of equitable apportionment have long been applied to require successive employers and successive insurers each to contribute their proportionate share of the total responsibility for temporary total and temporary partial disability benefits. The same principles of equitable apportionment also have been applied to allocate responsibility for payment of permanent partial disability (PPD) benefits between successive employers or successive insurers when benefits are awarded on the basis of a single permanency rating of the disability resulting from more than one compensable injury. Id. at 292 (citations omitted). These common law principles of contribution have been regularly applied by the WCCA. For example, in Niemi v. Mesabi Drill Operations, the employee and all but one employer, Mesabi Drill, reached a settlement. 45 Minn. Workers' Comp. Dec. 348, 350-51 (WCCA), aff'd without opinion, 476 N.W.2d 895 (Minn.1991). The settling employers then filed a claim for contribution against Mesabi Drill. Id. at 351. The WCCA affirmed the decision of the compensation judge that the employee's injury at Mesabi Drill was a substantial contributing factor in her total disability and [that] 1/6th of the responsibility for that disability should be apportioned to the Mesabi Drill injury. Id. at 352-54. And in Masters v. Moorhead Construction Co., the WCCA concluded that the settling insurer's contribution claims against a non-settling insurer were not barred, stating that to hold otherwise would bar claims for contribution that were specifically authorized by the Act and were recognized under the common law principles of equitable apportionment. 47 Minn. Workers' Comp. Dec. 432, 437 (WCCA 1992). It perhaps could have been argued in Haverland that the worker's compensation laws are purely statutory and there is no legal basis to import common law principles into those laws. But we decided otherwise in Haverland, and we confirmed that decision in DeNardo and Silva. In the 40 years since Haverland, the legislature has acquiesced in this judicial application of contribution principles in worker's compensation cases and has not enacted any substantive changes to those principles. It is not that the legislature was inattentive to these issues because, although it has not made substantive changes, it has enacted procedural limitations on the availability of contribution under the Act. In 1995, apparently in response to the growing number of contribution claims, it amended section 176.191 to add subdivision 1a, providing that [e]quitable apportionment of liability for any injury under this chapter is not allowed in proceedings before a worker's compensation judge, but only in settlement agreements or in arbitration. See Act of May 25, 1995, ch. 231, art. 2, § 77, 1995 Minn. Laws 1977, 2056-58. But in 1997, the legislature relaxed that procedural restriction by amending section 176.191, subd. 1, to specifically authorize compensation judges to consider contribution claims once a temporary order had been issued that required one employer to commence payment of benefits. See Act of May 9, 1997, ch. 128, § 4, 1997 Minn. Laws, 854, 856; see also Silva, 582 N.W.2d at 569.