Court Opinion

ID: 9593406
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:22:21.32745+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:21.095866
License: Public Domain

AMUNDSON, Justice
(dissenting).
This is a case where the issue is whether or not co-employee’s suit is allowable under the applicable worker’s compensation law and not whether it is allowable under choice of law principles of tort law. In such a case, we must determine which jurisdiction (Iowa or South Dakota) has a greater interest at stake. Hauch v. Conner, 453 A.2d 1207 (Md.1983).
This explosion occurred in Iowa while plaintiffs were in the employ of a multi-state employer providing worker’s compensation in both Iowa and South Dakota, as well as in other jurisdictions. The employees or their heirs received benefits under the worker’s compensation program in effect at the time in Iowa. Both South Dakota and Iowa provide for an exception to the exclusivity provision of their respective acts. Under these exceptions, plaintiffs remain in court under the Iowa gross negligence standard, but are out of court under the South Dakota intentional tort standard.
The most significant relationship approach of Chambers v. Dakotah Charter, 488 N.W.2d 63 (S.D.1992), certainly should not foreclose plaintiffs from their day in court. This case, as previously stated, involves employees of a multi-state employer, employees whose employment required them to cross state lines in fulfilling their work duties, and employees who obviously were assigned to dangerous work environments. The employer was not incorporated in South Dakota. At the time of the occurrence, the employment relationship between employees and employer was centered in Milford, Iowa.
Since South Dakota and Iowa have similar exceptions to exclusivity of their respective worker’s compensation statute, I do not perceive any conflict to the public policy of South Dakota, since this state has *908acknowledged an exception to the exclusivity of worker’s compensation in an appropriate case. The prior decisions of this court in Owen v. Owen, 444 N.W.2d 710 (S.D.1989) and Heidemann v. Rohl, 86 S.D. 260, 194 N.W.2d 164 (1972), seem to indicate a preference to allow injured citizens of this state to prosecute legitimate claims. There has been an election in this case to apply Iowa law to the explosion as evidenced by the worker’s compensation benefits being paid. Under the facts in this case, I would conclude that South Dakota’s interest in having its worker’s compensation statutes apply to an action involving South Dakota domiciliaries is outweighed by the interest of applying Iowa law to the industrial accident occurring within Iowa where Iowa worker’s compensation statutes have been implemented. Although this court has not adopted Professor Leflar’s choice-influencing consideration approach to choice of law disputes, I find the following portion of this article enlightening:
“The inclination of any reasonable court will be to prefer rules of law which make good socio-economic sense for the time when the court speaks, whether they be its own or another state’s rules.”
R. Leflar, Conflicts Law: More on Choice-Influencing Considerations, 54 Cal.L.Rev. 1584, 1588 (1966).
The rule of law which this reasonable court should prefer in this case is that set forth in Iowa Code § 85.20 (1991). Whether the plaintiffs can prove gross negligence, a term which is not foreign to South Dakota jurists, is a question which will never be determined under the majority holding in this case. I would grant plaintiffs that opportunity to receive an answer and reverse the decision of the trial court on the choice of law issue.