Opinion ID: 1853011
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Heading: The 1975 Amendments are Constitutional

Text: The principles this Court has traditionally employed in determining the constitutionality of a legislative Act was summarized in Alabama State Federation of Labor v. McAdory, 246 Ala. 1, 18 So.2d 810 (1944):    Uniformly, the courts recognize that this power [to strike down a legislative act as violative of the constitution] is a delicate one, and to be used with great caution. It should be borne in mind, also, that legislative power is not derived either from the state or federal constitutions. These instruments are only limitations upon the power. Apart from limitations imposed by these fundamental charters of government, the power of the legislature has no bounds and is as plenary as that of the British Parliament. It follows that, in passing upon the constitutionality of a legislative act, the courts uniformly approach the question with every presumption and intendment in favor of its validity, and seek to sustain rather than strike down the enactment of a coordinate branch of the government. All these principles are embraced in the simple statement that it is the recognized duty of the court to sustain the act unless it is clear beyond reasonable doubt that it is violative of the fundamental law. . . . Another principle which is recognized with practical unanimity, and leading to the same end, is that the courts do not hold statutes invalid because they think there are elements therein which are violative of natural justice or in conflict with the court's notions of natural, social, or political rights of the citizen, not guaranteed by the constitution itself. Nor even if the courts think the act is harsh or in some degree unfair, and presents chances for abuse, or is of doubtful propriety. All of these questions of propriety, wisdom, necessity, utility and expediency are held exclusively for the legislative bodies, and are matters with which the courts have no concern. This principle is embraced within the simple statement that the only question for the court to decide is one of power, not of expediency or wisdom. . . . I think the 1975 amendment is rationally related to some valid legislative objective. Prior to 1947, Alabama's Workmen's Compensation Statute effectively prevented an employee from suing a negligent fellow worker when the injured employee accepted the statute's benefits. This was accomplished by having the injured employee elect between the compensation offered by his employer or a cause of action against a third party. United States Fire Insurance Co. v. McCormick, 286 Ala. 531, 243 So.2d 367 (1970); Baggett v. Webb, 46 Ala.App. 666, 248 So.2d 275 (1971). When the legislature repealed Title 26, § 311, in 1947, and amended § 312, the legislature removed the election requirement as it concerned co-employees. Thus, Alabama was left to follow the general rule which allows an injured employee to sue a negligent co-employee when there is no express legislative mandate to the contrary. United States Fire Insurance Co. v. McCormick, supra; Frantz v. McBee Co., 77 So.2d 796 (Fla.1955). The legislature's response to this Court's holding in McCormick is somewhat typical to that made in other jurisdictions. See Annotation 21, A.L.R.3d 845, 864. Appellants correctly point out that one of the purposes of the compensation statute is to require industry to bear part of the burden of disability and death resulting from the hazards of industry. Pow v. Southern Construction Co., 235 Ala. 580, 180 So. 288 (1938). However, contrary to what the appellants argue, this is not the sole purpose for upholding the validity of workmen's compensation acts, in my opinion. This Court quoted from a New York opinion in one of its earliest decisions upholding the Workmen's Compensation Statute as a valid exercise of the state's police power, as follows: `It protects both employer and employee, the former from wasteful suits and extravagant verdicts, the latter from the expense, uncertainties, and delays of litigation in all cases, and from the certainty of defeat if unable to establish a case of actionable negligence.' Chapman v. Railway Fuel Co., 212 Ala. 106, 101 So. 879 (1924). The majority cites Gentry v. Swann Chemical Co., 234 Ala. 313, 174 So. 530 (1937), for the proposition that the Workmen's Compensation Act was a substitute for causes of action for personal injuries against the employer. I do not read Gentry that way. It appears to me that Gentry focuses on the type of injury and how it was caused as opposed to who caused it. There, this Court said: It is not a matter of doubt, that the Workmen's Compensation Act, in general, was intended as in the nature of a substitute, between master and servant who elect to come within its provisions, for actions of tortfor personal injuries at common lawand under the state Employer's Liability Act, or other statute giving the employee a right of action. Chapman v. Railway Fuel Co., 212 Ala. 106, 101 So. 879. However, in the light of the provisions of Section 13, of the Constitution of 1901, `That all courts shall be open; that every person, for any injury done him, in his lands, goods, person, or reputation, shall have a remedy by due process of law' it cannot be said that for an injury done a person, not within the provisions of the Workmen's Compensation Act, that it was the legislative intent by the enactment of said law, to deny such person a remedy, if under the common law or the Employer's Liability Act, or other statute he was entitled to maintain an action therefor. So the question to be determined is, Was the plaintiff's injury `a personal injury' caused `by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment?' (Emphasis added). In view of the question this Court posed in Gentry, I believe the legislature can constitutionally deal with an employee's `personal injury' caused `by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment' But, as Justice Sayre opined in Chapman v. Railway Fuel Co., 212 Ala. 106, 101 So. 879 (1924):    The following considerations justifying acts of this character under the police power were stated in the Jensen Case, [ Jensen v. Southern Pacific Co., 215 N.Y. 514, 109 N.E. 600] supra (we quote the headnote): `It protects both employer and employee, the former from wasteful suits and extravagant verdicts, the latter from the expense, uncertainties, and delays of litigation in all cases, and from the certainty of defeat if unable to establish a case of actionable negligence.' And if the police power be not sufficient to account satisfactorily for all these stipulations of the act, they may be justified on the ground that they become part and parcel of the express or implied agreement between the parties to abide by the provisions of the act made for the benefit, in the long run, of both employer and employee. Woodward Iron Co. v. Bradford, 206 Ala. 447, 90 So. 803. Not only did the plaintiff elect to come under the Workmen's Compensation Act, but he accepted benefits under it. An employer who has the option of avoiding the provisions of the Workmen's Compensation Act, but who accepts it, waives any right to invoke constitutional objections to it. Woodward Iron Co. v. Bradford, 206 Ala. 447, 90 So. 803 (1921). The same rule of law should apply to an employee. How can appellants claim they have constitutional rights which they have voluntarily relinquished? In Chapman v. Railway Fuel Co., 212 Ala. 106, 101 So. 879 (1924), this Court held: In the next place it is said that the body of the act fails to provide an elective system for that it undertakes to control the rights of employer and employee, even though both elect not to come under its provisions, in the one case by abolishing defenses, in the other by remitting the employee to his commonlaw rights and remedies. But no one has any vested right under the Constitution to the maintenance of common-law doctrines in statutory provisions regulating the relations between employer and employee in respect of rights and liabilities growing out of accidental injuries. Jensen v. Southern Pacific Co., 215 N.Y. 514, 109 N.E. 600, L.R.A.1916A, 403, Ann.Cas. 1916B, 276; Mondou v. N. Y., etc. R.R., 223 U.S. 1, 32 S.Ct. 169, 56 L.Ed. 327, 38 L.R.A., N.S., 44; Jeffrey Mfg. Co. v. Blagg, 235 U.S. 571, 35 S.Ct. 167, 59 L.Ed. 364, is authority for the proposition that an act abolishing rights and defenses, the parties being free to accept or reject, violates no constitutional rights. All such attacks upon laws of this character have failed of their purposes. 1 Hannold, Work Comp. § 18. (Emphasis added). Unquestionably, Section 13 of our Constitution provides that . . . every person, for any injury done him . . . shall have a remedy . . .; but, the plaintiff here had a remedy. The majority says the quid pro quo runs only between the employer and employee. Assuming that is correct, which I do not, the employer, under the Workmen's Compensation Law is entitled to reimbursement for his compensation outlay. In fact, the effect of this decision will mean, not only that these very plaintiffs may someday be defendants in suits by co-employees, but it also means that [i]n the event the injured employee or, in case of his death, his dependents do not file a civil action against such other party to recover damages within the time allowed by law, the employer or the insurance carrier for the employer shall be allowed an additional period of six months within which to bring a civil action against such other party for damages on account of such injury or death. Code of Alabama, 1975, § 25-5-11(b). In summary, this plaintiff has been provided a remedy for any personal injury caused by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment. He elected to accept this remedy. The provisions of the Act became part and parcel of the express agreement between the parties to abide by the provisions of the Act. The Act, as written, protects the employee not only from the expense, uncertainties, and delays of litigation, but also against actions by injured co-employees, or if they fail to sue, against actions by the subrogated employer or its carrier to recover the compensation outlay. I would affirm. TORBERT, C. J., concurs.