Court Opinion

ID: 9794153
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 03:00:32.383397+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:12:35.147537
License: Public Domain

LEESON, J.,
concurring in part; dissenting in part.
I agree with the majority’s conclusion that plaintiffs have not stated a claim under the Oregon Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act. ORS 166.715 et seq. I also agree that plaintiffs have not pleaded a claim for damages under ORS 656.156(2), because their allegations do not meet the test for “deliberate intent.”
I part ways with the majority on its analysis of the negligence claim. In my view, Neher v. Chartier, 319 Or 417, 879 P2d 156 (1994), is directly applicable and requires the conclusion that ORS 656.018 violates Article I, section 10, of the Oregon Constitution insofar as it eliminates any remedy that nondependent parents of an injured worker might have for the negligent acts of the employer.1 There are only two *172distinctions between this case and Neher, and I do not think that either of them is relevant for purposes of our analysis of the challenge under Article I, section 10. In this case, defendant is the deceased worker’s employer. In Neher, the defendant was a third party that had allegedly caused the deceased worker’s injury. In this case, the statutory source of the immunity is ORS 656.018. Defendant, its officers, employees and directors are immune from tort liability for negligence, because defendant is a complying employer who has satisfied its obligation to provide workers’ compensation coverage. In Neher, the defendant Tri-Met and its officers, employees and agents, were immune from liability for a third-party claim by the deceased worker’s estate, because Tri-Met was a public body within the meaning of ORS 30.265(3) and the injury was covered by workers’ compensation law. The Supreme Court’s opinion in Neher leads me to conclude that neither the statutory source of the immunity nor the defendant’s status as the employer or as a third-party public entity is relevant to the question of whether there has been a violation of Article I, section 10.
In Neher, the court said that the focus of the analysis under Article I, section 10, is whether the effect of the immunity is to leave the tort plaintiff without any substantial remedy against the responsible party. In that case, as here, the named plaintiff was the personal representative of the deceased worker’s estate. There, as here, the action was brought under ORS 30.020(1), the wrongful death statute. The court said that, because the estate was entitled under the Workers’ Compensation Law to recover for the cost of burial, ORS 656.204(1), the estate of the worker was not left without a remedy. The same is true here. However, the court also said that, in a wrongful death action, the estate is not the only real party in interest. Relying on ORS 30.020(2)(d), which provides that damages that “justly, fairly and reasonably compensate the decedent’s * * * parents” may be awarded in a wrongful death action, the court held that such actions are also brought on behalf of surviving parents. The court concluded that the immunity provided by ORS 30.265(3)(a) left *173the decedent’s parents, “who otherwise would be entitled to recover under ORS 30.010(2)(d),” wholly without a remedy.
In Neher, had the decedent survived her injury, she could not have sued Tri-Met, because of its statutory immunity. Nonetheless, the court held in Neher that the worker’s parents could recover damages for her wrongful death, because to apply the immunity of ORS 30.265(3) (a) to that circumstance would have left the parents wholly without a remedy, in violation of Article I, section 10. Similarly, in this case, the decedent could not have sued his employer, because of the immunity provided by ORS 656.018. To apply the immunity of that statute to bar the deceased worker’s nondependent parents from bringing an action for his wrongful death would leave them wholly without remedy for their injury. I would hold that, to the extent that it prohibits a wrongful death action against a negligent employer by the estate of the deceased worker, ORS 656.018 violates Article I, section 10, of the Oregon Constitution, because it leaves the nondependent parents of a deceased worker wholly without a remedy.2
The majority appears to be moved by a concern that to permit this negligence action will “seriously erode—if not destroy—the exclusivity of remedy on which the workers’ compensation system depends.” 133 Or App at 163. Such is not the case. Under my reading of Neher, the only person who would be entitled to bring an action is one who would have been able to bring an action but for the immunity provision and who is not otherwise provided a remedy. Accordingly, I dissent.

 The majority’s contention that Leech v. Georgia-Pacific Corp., 259 Or 161, 485 P2d 1195 (1971), is relevant to the analysis in this case is misplaced. 133 Or App at 164. In Leech, the court disposed of the plaintiff’s Article I, section 10, argument in a footnote, observing that that constitutional contention “was not pressed on oral *172argument, and we think it requires no comment here.” 259 Or at 167 n 3. Even if Leech once aided the majority’s analysis, Neher is now the controlling authority and we are obliged to follow it.

 I do not understand the significance of the majority’s distinction between a right to bring a third-party action and the right to sue the employer directly. In both cases, clearly there is no legal bar to bringing the action, but in both, the statutory immunity could be raised as a defense.