Court Opinion

ID: 9577519
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:35:44.420737+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:20:44.243102
License: Public Domain

Justice Meyer
concurring in result.
While I concur in the result reached by the majority, I find the majority’s lengthy explanation and interpretation of Pleasant v. Johnson, 312 N.C. 710, 325 S.E. 2d 244 (1985), inappropriate in view of the Court’s decision that the evidence in this case reflects only “ordinary” negligence on the part of the co-employees.
Pleasant stands only for the proposition that our Workers’ Compensation Act does not preclude a suit against a co-employee for the co-employee’s willful, wanton, and reckless negligence, or, as stated by the majority in Pleasant, “[W]e now hold that the Workers’ Compensation Act does not shield a co-employee from common law liability for willful, wanton and reckless negligence.” Id. at 716, 325 S.E. 2d at 249.
Where, as here, the Court bases its decision upon evidence that supports “only a finding of ordinary negligence on the part of the plaintiffs co-employees,” of what possible relevance is the majority’s statement that “we find it unnecessary to decide, or even consider, whether an employer may be held vicariously liable in a civil action by one of its employees for the willful, wanton or reckless conduct of . . . other employees.” (Emphasis added.) Where, as here, the level of negligence is determined to be only “ordinary” negligence, the majority’s explanation and interpretation of Pleasant’s definition and treatment of willful, wanton, and reckless negligence as “constructive intent to injure” is clearly irrelevant and constitutes the worst sort of obiter dictum.