Opinion ID: 1245205
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Heading: Harmonizing the Policies Respecting Workers' Compensation and Human Rights

Text: The State's Workers' Compensation Law, W. Va.Code Chapter 23, and The West Virginia Human Rights Act, W. Va.Code Chapter 5, Article 11, set forth two significant legislative public polices. We must therefore endeavor to uphold the Legislature's intent by protecting the integrity of both statutory schemes. `Consistency in statutes is of prime importance, and, in the absence of a showing to the contrary, all laws are presumed to be consistent with each other. Where it is possible to do so, it is the duty of the courts, in the construction of statutes, to harmonize and reconcile laws, and to adopt that construction of a statutory provision which harmonizes and reconciles it with other statutory provisions   ' 50 Am.Jur., Statutes, Section 363 and citing 82 C.J.S., Statutes, § 365, as well as State ex rel. Revercomb v. O'Brien, 141 W.Va. 662, 91 S.E.2d 865; State ex rel. Thompson v. Morton, 140 W.Va. 207, 84 S.E.2d 791; State v. Snyder, 89 W.Va. 96, 108 S.E. 588; Farmers' & Merchants' Bank of Reedsville v. Kingwood Nat. Bank, 85 W.Va. 371, 101 S.E. 734. State ex rel. Pinson v. Varney, 142 W.Va. 105, 109-10, 96 S.E.2d 72, 75 (1956). The second sentence in Pinson 's quotation was quoted with approval in State v. Williams, 196 W.Va. 639, 641, 474 S.E.2d 569, 572 (1996), to which quoted sentence the Williams Court added the words to give full force and effect to each, if possible. [10] Here, Messer's cause of action for discrimination is not based on her employer's liability for a compensable work-related injury within the meaning of the Workers' Compensation Act. Rather, it is based on Appellees' alleged subsequent discriminatory conduct that, although incidentally related to the compensable work-related injury, gives rise to an entirely separate liability under the WVHRA. Any apparent conflict between West Virginia's Workers' Compensation Act and the WVHRA that may arise can be harmonized by recognizing, as many courts have done, that the rights and remedies of the Acts are considerably different and serve to fulfill different purposes. Thus we hold that the first of the two Acts is directed at compensating an employee who has suffered an injury or disease in the course of and resulting from his/her employment and at shielding the employer from liability outside the workers' compensation system for such injury. The second is directed towards actions of an employer in discriminating against an employee because of his or her disability. Since the Acts seek to remedy two separate harms, physical injury and discrimination, no conflict exists between the two Acts and it would be inconsistent with the purposes of the West Virginia Human Rights Act, W. Va.Code § 5-11-1 et seq., to limit its applicability to physical  injury disabilities unrelated to work. The injury that Messer seeks to redress under the WVHRA is the indignity of the alleged discrimination against her because of her disability. The interpretation which Appellees would attach to the exclusivity clause would render the WVHRA ineffective and useless to a large group of West Virginians who have compensable work-related injuries. Such an interpretation would frustrate a broad, fundamental public policy which fulfills paramount purposes and would effectively relegate one class of employee to an inferior status compared to another class of employee who have injuries or disabilities which are not work-related. Being enacted later in time to the Workers' Compensation Act, the WVHRA makes no distinction between classes of employees to which civil rights protection is extended. Had the Legislature desired to treat employees with work-related disabilities differently, it would have done so within the WVHRA. It did not do so. That the Workers' Compensation Act itself excludes from its immunities injuries caused by certain acts, including deliberate intent acts at W. Va.Code § 23-4-2 and discriminatory acts at W. Va.Code § 23-5A-1, et seq., provides a further measure of assurance that the Legislature intended employees such as Messer to be protected by both systems. [11] Here, Messer has alleged essentially two separate types of injuries. To the extent that a worker's injuries are of the type cognizable under W. Va.Code § 23-4-1 for which workers' compensation benefits may be sought, including aggravations and physical and non-physical conditions which flow directly and uniquely from such injury, we find that the exclusivity provision of the Workers' Compensation Act prohibits recovery outside of the mechanisms set forth in the West Virginia Workers' Compensation Act. To the extent that a worker's injuries are directly and proximately caused by the unlawful discriminatory acts of his or her employer, and are of a type not otherwise recoverable under the Workers' Compensation Act, we hold that the exclusivity provision of the Workers' Compensation Act is inapplicable as the Legislature did not intend such injuries to fall within the types of injuries for which the Workers' Compensation Act was established. Thus, while an aggravation or worsening of an employee's physical injury by the conduct of his/her employer may be compensable under and thus subject to, the exclusive remedy provided by the Workers' Compensation Act, an employee's claim against an employer for violation of The West Virginia Human Rights Act and resulting non-physical injuries, such as mental and emotional distress and anguish, directly and proximately resulting from such violation and not associated with the physical injury or the aggravation or worsening thereof are not barred by the exclusivity provisions of the Workers Compensation Act, W. Va Code § 23-2-6 (2003) and -6a (1949). Such violation and the resulting nonphysical injuries are not within the scope of the Workers' Compensation Act. Rather, they are separate liabilities from the physical injury and were created by The West Virginia Human Rights Act, an entirely different statute from the Workers' Compensation Act with different policy objectives. [12]