Opinion ID: 1897168
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: previous case treatment

Text: Before analyzing the purposes and implications of the Act in order to determine whether weekly compensation benefits substitute in whole or in part for the tort element of pain and suffering, it is appropriate to review how the Louisiana courts have approached this question. The courts of appeal are in conflict. The second circuit has held the reimbursement award for weekly compensation benefits cannot exceed the amount a plaintiff is awarded for lost wages in his third party tort action. Price v. Mitchell Const. Co., Inc., 482 So.2d 869 (La.App.2d Cir.1986). The second circuit in Price refused to allow reimbursement out of the plaintiff's award for general damages. The third circuit, however, has expressly declined in this case to follow the second circuit's holding in Price. Brooks v. Chicola, 503 So.2d 1086, at 1089, fn. 2 (La.App.3d Cir.1987). The court held: an intervenor [is] entitled to be reimbursed for weekly benefits it [has] paid to an injured employee out of any award to [the] employee whether for pain and suffering, lost wages, or general damages. Id. at 1088 (citing Stewart v. Hanover Ins. Co., 416 So.2d 286 (La.App.3d Cir.), writ denied, 421 So.2d 907 (La.1982)). The second circuit holding in Price was predicated upon the rationale set forth by this court in Fontenot v. Hanover Ins. Co., 385 So.2d 238 (La.1980). [6] In Fontenot this Court confronted the issue of whether an employer or his insurer is entitled to reimbursement for medical expenses paid under the Worker's Compensation Law out of the employee's judgment against a third party tortfeasor for his pain and suffering. Justice Dennis, writing for the majority, reasoned: The underlying policy of the apportionment scheme in providing that an employer's claim for reimbursement of compensation actually paid shall take precedence is merely that the employee should not be compensated doubly for the same element of his damages. [Citation omitted.] It does not appear that the legislature intended for the employer to be reimbursed from the employee's award for items which the employee has not recovered from the third person. [Citations omitted.] Id. at 240. The third circuit distinguished Fontenot, as follows: As we interpret Fontenot ... it is inapplicable to the case at bar. Fontenot stands for the proposition that an employee is not required to reimburse his employer for paid medical expenses out of his (employee's) award for pain and suffering when the employee has failed to recover medical expenses from a third party tortfeasor. The same is not true, however, for weekly benefits paid, which, are recoverable out of the award to the employee for pain and suffering, lost wages, or out of general damages ... In view of the above, we find no error on the part of the trial judge in granting intervenor judgment for compensation payments in excess of the amount awarded plaintiff for lost wages. Stewart, supra, at 289 (citing Foreman v. United States Fidelity and Guaranty Co., 253 So.2d 580 (La.App.3d Cir.1971)). It is true that in Fontenot the issue involved medical expenses and not weekly benefits. Unfortunately, neither the third circuit in this case nor the second circuit in Price explain satisfactorily why medical expense reimbursement should be treated either the same or differently from weekly benefits. The third circuit says differently because weekly benefits are, in part at least, in lieu of recovery for pain and suffering. Brooks v. Chicola, supra, at 1089. The second circuit in Price found the weekly benefits are reimbursable from the specific amount awarded to plaintiff for the item of lost wages. The item of $75,000 in general damages was not encroached upon. Price, supra, at 873. The reasons for the respective conclusions are not fully indicated in either opinion. [7] Finally, in the discussion of case treatment, we note Stewart's reliance on Foreman was inapposite because in Foreman the weekly benefits paid were $308.57, and the tort award for lost wages was $675.00. Thus, Foreman did not hold that reimbursement for weekly benefit payments could come out of the employee's award for pain and suffering.