Court Opinion

ID: 9669150
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 02:40:56.651952+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:53.009829
License: Public Domain

OPINION
DAVID B. GAULTNEY, Justice.
Mario Gonzales, Sr., a resident of Hardin County, sued Louisiana-Pacific Corporation in Jefferson County for injuries he says were caused by negligence. Louisiana-Pacific contends the negligence lawsuit pending in Jefferson County is barred by the Texas Workers’ Compensation Act, because Gonzales was its borrowed employee at the time of the accident, thereby making recovery of workers’ compensation benefits Gonzales’s exclusive remedy. Tex. Lab.Code Ann. § 408.001(a) (Vernon 1996). See Guerrero v. Harmon Tank Co., 55 S.W.Bd 19, 24-25 (Tex.App.-Amarillo 2001, pet. denied)(description of borrowed servant doctrine).
Louisiana-Pacific made the same assertion before the Texas Workers’ Compensation Commission. The hearing officer determined that the Commission had jurisdiction to determine the identity of the employer, and also determined that Gonzales was not the borrowed employee of Louisiana-Pacific. The appeals panel affirmed, stating that the hearing officer’s determination was not so against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence as to be clearly wrong or manifestly unjust. Pursuant to statute, Louisiana-Pacific appealed that ruling to the district court in Hardin County. See Tex. Lab.Code Ann. §§ 410.251, 410.252(a), 410.301 (Vernon 1996).
Louisiana-Pacific unsuccessfully sought to abate Gonzales’s negligence action below and now asks this Court to find the trial judge abused his discretion in denying the abatement motion. The issue presented in this mandamus proceeding is whether the negligence lawsuit can proceed to trial in Jefferson County before the appeal of the Commission’s ruling in Hardin County is decided.
*188Subject to exceptions not applicable here, recovery of compensation benefits is intended to be an employee’s exclusive remedy against the employer for work-related injuries. See Burkett v. Welborn, 42 S.W.3d 282, 288 (Tex.App.-Texarkana 2001, no pet.). A regular employee of one employer may become the employee of another under the borrowed employee doctrine. Under that doctrine, Louisiana-Pacific would not be hable to Gonzales for common law negligence, and Gonzales’s exclusive remedy would be workers’ compensation benefits. See Esquivel v. Mapelli Meat Packing Co., 932 S.W.2d 612, 614 (Tex.App.-San Antonio 1996, writ denied).
The Workers’ Compensation Act (“Act”) gives the Workers’ Compensation Commission sole power to award compensation benefits, subject to judicial review. See American Motorists Ins. Co. v. Fodge, 63 S.W.3d 801, 803 (Tex.2001). Judicial review is the concluding step of a four-tier system established by the Act for disposition of compensation issues by the Texas Workers’ Compensation Commission. See Subsequent Injury Fund v. Service Lloyds Ins. Co., 961 S.W.2d 673, 675 (Tex. App-Houston [1st Dist.] 1998, pet denied). The process begins with a benefit review conference conducted by a benefit review officer. Tex. Lab.Code Ann. §§ 410.021-410.034 (Vernon 1996). The parties may proceed to agreed arbitration, or a party may seek relief at a contested case hearing. See Tex. Lab.Code Ann. §§ 410.104; 410.151-410.169 (Vernon 1996 & Supp. 2003). The third tier involves a review of the hearing officer’s decision by an administrative appeals panel. Tex. Lab.Code Ann. §§ 410.201-410.208 (Vernon 1996 & Supp.2003). The final step is the judicial review of the appeals panel decision. See Tex. Lab.Code Ann. §§ 410.251-410.308 (Vernon 1996 & Supp.2003).
The Commission’s final decision is appealable to the courts under what is described as a modified de novo review. If the issue on appeal is compensability, the employee’s county of residence is the proper venue for the appeal. See Rodriguez v. Service Lloyds Ins. Co., 997 S.W.2d 248, 253 (Tex.1999). Course and scope of employment is a compensability issue. See generally Texas Workers’ Compensation Commission v. Garcia, 893 S.W.2d 504, 515 (Tex.l995)(“For all issues regarding compensability of the injury (for example, whether it occurred in the course and scope of employment) ... there is a right to trial by jury.”). Whether Gonzales’s injuries occurred in the course and scope of employment with Louisiana-Pacific is an issue regarding compensability properly appealed to Hardin County district court.
In In re Luby’s Cafeterias, Inc., 979 S.W.2d 813, 815-16, 818 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 1998, orig. proceeding), the appellate court ordered a negligence lawsuit abated because of the pendency of a compensation issue before the Texas Workers’ Compensation Commission. The court wrote:
Undoubtedly, subjecting the workers’ compensation subscriber to a negligence trial and a potential judgment before the Commission decides whether the employee’s injury is compensable will inject needless uncertainty and confusion into the issues surrounding both proceedings.
Id. at 817. The court also noted:
[I]t would be pointless for the court and parties in the underlying suit to expend their resources on a trial until the Commission first decides the compensability issue.
Id. at 816.
Our case presents a different circumstance than that before the court in In *189re Luby’s Cafeterias. The Commission has already decided the compensation issue against Louisiana-Pacific and that decision is on appeal to the Hardin County district court. The claim is no longer pending before the Commission. Nevertheless, we conclude similar considerations require abatement of this negligence suit pending the decision by the Hardin County district court handling the appeal of the Commission’s decision.
The modified de novo appeal process established in the Worker’s Compensation Act is an integral part of the statutory system for resolving compensation claims before the Commission. Permitting the borrowed employee issue to be decided in this negligence suit, rather than in the presently-pending compensation appeal— the appeal provided by statute — would bypass the legislatively-crafted system set forth in the Texas Workers’ Compensation Act for deciding compensation issues. Abatement of this negligence action until the compensation issue is resolved avoids needless uncertainty and confusion, avoids potentially conflicting results, and avoids unnecessary and duplicative expenditure of resources. Abatement here also preserves the exclusive power of the Commission to resolve compensation claims presented to it, subject only to the judicial review provided by the Act.
If Gonzales was the borrowed employee of Louisiana-Pacific at the time of the accident, this negligence action is barred by the exclusivity provision of the Act. Tex. Lab.Code Ann. § 408.001(a) (Vernon 1996). See Esquivel, 982 S.W.2d at 614. The Act requires that the correctness of the Commission’s decision on an issue of compensa-bility be determined by the district court in Hardin County, where Gonzales resided at the time of injury, rather than by the district court of Jefferson County. Tex. Lab.Code Ann. § 410.252(b)(1) (Vernon 1996). The trial court in Jefferson County abused its discretion in failing to abate this negligence case to permit determination of the issue in the Hardin County district court, as provided by the Act.
Gonzales contends that abatement was properly denied by the trial court because Louisiana-Pacific failed to act timely in two respects. First, he argues that Louisiana-Pacific did not act in a timely manner to assert its position before the Commission as Gonzales’s employer for workers’ compensation purposes. This matter was addressed in the written decision of the hearing examiner, who found that Louisiana — Pacific’s assertion as Gonzales’s employer was not untimely. Second, Gonzales says the motion to abate was not timely filed in this case. See Wyatt v. Shaw Plumbing Co., 760 S.W.2d 245, 248 (Tex.1988). Generally, a court may examine the equities of the situation in deciding whether a plea in abatement is timely filed. See In re Luby’s Cafeterias, Inc., 979 S.W.2d at 817; Develo-cepts, Inc. v. City of Galveston, 668 S.W.2d 790, 793 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 1984, no writ); Bluebonnet Farms, Inc. v. Gibraltar Savings Ass’n, 618 S.W.2d 81, 84 (Tex.Civ. App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 1980, writ ref'd n.r.e.). Courts have considered not only the passage of time, but also the actions of the party moving for abatement during that time, and whether any delay in the filing of the motion for abatement was harmful or prejudicial to the opposing party. See In re Luby’s Cafeterias, Inc., 979 S.W.2d at 817-18; Develo-cepts, Inc., 668 S.W.2d at 793; Bluebonnet Farms, 618 S.W.2d at 84; Howell v. Mauzy, 899 S.W.2d 690, 698 (Tex.App.-Austin 1994 no pet.). Gonzales does not contend, either in the trial court or in his response to the petition in this Court, that Louisiana Pacific has, for example, actively pursued the Jefferson County litigation, see Howell v. *190Mauzy, 899 S.W.2d at 698, or that he has suffered any specific harm or prejudice to his case as a result of any delay in filing the motion. The burden of showing harm or prejudice should be particularly heavy when denial of a plea in abatement would defeat a statutory appeal process. In this case Gonzales has not shown harm resulted from any delay in filing the motion to abate.
A writ of mandamus will issue to correct a clear abuse of discretion when there is no adequate remedy at law. See Walker v. Packer, 827 S.W.2d 833, 839 (Tex.1992). Where the outcome of a presently-pending workers’ compensation proceeding would preclude liability in the parallel litigation, there is no adequate remedy by appeal. See In re Luby’s Cafeterias, Inc., 979 S.W.2d at 815-16. See also In re Travelers Indem. Co. of Rhode Island, 109 S.W.3d 10 (Tex.App.-El Paso 2002, orig. proceeding).
We conditionally grant the petition for writ of mandamus. We are confident the trial court will abate the case; writ will issue only if the trial court below fails to comply with this decision.
WRIT CONDITIONALLY GRANTED.
DON BURGESS, Justice filed a dissenting opinion.