Opinion ID: 1676350
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: worker's compensation coverage

Text: Both lower courts held that plaintiff's exclusive remedy is under the worker's compensation act. The Court of Appeal relied on the case of Messer v. Bagwell Coatings, Inc., 283 So.2d 279 (La.App. 1st Cir.1973) in support of its holding. In Messer, the court held that the Worker's Compensation Act provided the exclusive remedy for a minor against his employer where the minor was injured in the course and scope of his employment, notwithstanding that the employer had violated La.R.S. 23:161. For the reasons which follow, we hold that the lower courts were correct in this regard. La.R.S. 23:1035 provides in pertinent part: The provisions of this Chapter shall also apply to every person performing services arising out of and incidental to his employment in the course of his own trade, business, or occupation, or in the course of his employer's trade, business, or occupation .... (Emphasis provided.) Despite the statutory reference to every person, plaintiff nevertheless argues that it does not apply to minors who are performing tasks which are prohibited by the Child Labor Law. He argues that it only applies to services which are being performed legally. The statutory history of this provision makes it clear that plaintiff's position in this regard has no merit. Prior to certain revisions of the Worker's Compensation Act in 1948, the section of the Act on coverage, although elective and applicable generally to minors, [4] expressly provided, this act shall not apply to employees of less than the minimum age prescribed by law for the employment of minors in the trades, businesses or occupations specified in the worker's compensation act. Thus, prior to the 1948 revisions of the act, it was expressly provided by the legislature that those minors who were employed illegally because below the minimum age required by law for them to perform certain jobs, were not covered by the Act. In 1948, the provision on coverage was amended and the above language excluding from coverage minors employed in violation of law was deleted. Thus, even though the worker's compensation act remained elective at that time, minors who were below the minimum age prescribed by law for employment in certain trades were included within it under the 1948 amendment, with their right of election to be exercised by their parents or guardian. It is the deletion of the previous provision excluding minors from coverage which evidences the legislative intent to include minors, whether employed in violation of law because of their age or not, within the coverage of the worker's compensation act. Malone & Johnson, Louisiana Civil Law Treatise, Workers' Compensation, 53; Larson, Workmen's Compensation Law, § 47.52(a). In 1975, major revisions were made to the compensation act to make it compulsory rather than elective, as it had been until then. As a part of these revisions, coverage as to private employees was, as it is now, provided in La.R.S. 23:1035. No change was made by these revisions with respect to which persons were covered by the act. To the contrary, the Legislature reaffirmed its intent to include all minors within the coverage of the act. La.R.S. 23:1035, providing for coverage under the act, states that the act is applicable to every person with no indication whatsoever that it did not apply to minors, legally or illegally employed. Furthermore, since the appellate courts had, between 1948 and 1975, rendered numerous decisions holding that the act did apply to minor employees who were below the minimum age prescribed by law for employment in certain trades or to do certain jobs, use of the term every person in the coverage provision must have been with the intent that such minors remain covered under the act. Plaintiff in brief relies heavily on the case of Boyer v. Johnson, 360 So.2d 1164 (La.1978), a case in which a minor recovered in tort against a supervisory co-employee, to support his argument that he is in this case not covered by the worker's compensation act. In Boyer, a fifteen year old boy had been hired to drive a truck by a Mr. Johnson, who had knowledge of the boy's age. After the boy was killed while driving the truck, his parents brought a wrongful death action against Johnson personally. The accident occurred in 1968, before the 1976 amendment to La.R.S. 23:1032 which extended tort immunity to co-employees and supervising personnel. Thus the issue in Boyer was simply whether a non-immune co-employee's violation of the Child Labor Law constituted negligence for which he should be required to respond in damages. The issue in this case is whether a supervisory co-employee, immune from tort liability following the 1976 amendment to La.R.S. 23:1032, and his possibly vicariously liable employer, are to be denied immunity from tort provided in La.R.S. 23:1032 because of an asserted intentional act. The issue narrows down to whether violation of the Child Labor Law in this case takes the plaintiff outside of the compensation act, not, as in Boyer, whether violation of the Child Labor Law was tortious conduct. Consequently, the Boyer case is distinguishable on its facts and not controlling. We find no merit to plaintiff's argument that he is not covered by the worker's compensation act because his injuries occurred while he was performing a task prohibited, for a minor his age by the Child Labor Law. [5]