Court Opinion

ID: 9669350
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 02:53:22.510544+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:55.816375
License: Public Domain

Gerrard, J.,
dissenting.
Under the lamentable state of our farm and ranch workers’ compensation law, it appears that employer liability turns not on whose ox was gored, but on whose steer was roped. That such an otherwise insignificant distinction should be meaningful indicates to me that Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-106(2) (Reissue 1998) needs serious reconsideration at the Legislature’s earliest convenience.
Justice Stephan’s analysis is on point, and given the language of § 48-106(2) and our prior jurisprudence, the facts of this case lead to the conclusion that D B Feedyards was an exempt employer of farm or ranch laborers. Thus, I join his dissent. The problem, of course, is that the lack of workers’ compensation coverage for such an obviously hazardous activity goes against every intuitive bone in a judge’s body—which is why I write separately.
Section 48-106(2) provides, in relevant part, that “employers of farm or ranch laborers” are “declared not to be hazardous occupations and not within the provisions of the Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Act.” Such a declaration is ludicrous given the nature of farm and ranch work. Nearly 20 years ago, we observed that
the statement contained in § 48-106(2) to the effect that farm or ranch labor is not a hazardous occupation is patently silly, and while we would agree that subjecting someone to the likelihood of being kicked in the knee by a horse or being pulled into a combine is as hazardous as any office work covered by the act, nevertheless, the Legislature, which has absolute control in this matter, has made such a classification, and absent a determination by *495this court that the classification violates the Nebraska Constitution, we are compelled to apply the law as written.
Leppert v. Parker, 218 Neb. 63, 68, 352 N.W.2d 180, 183 (1984). That straightforward observation has drawn no amendment to the statute.
Equally troubling, the Legislature has not defined “employers of farm or ranch laborers” or, alternatively, attempted to distinguish laborers on the basis of the work they do, rather than the nature of their employers. Nonetheless, despite the defects of § 48-106(2), courts must still decide the cases presented, and in the absence of definitive guidance from the Legislature, we have resorted to “an examination on a case-by-case basis of the facts in each particular instance.” Leppert, 218 Neb. at 67, 352 N.W.2d at 182. While it is a truism that each case is decided on its own unique facts, our piecemeal consideration of these cases has degenerated, as the present case demonstrates. Workers’ compensation liability cannot possibly depend on whose steer the claimant was roping, yet that is precisely the circumstance that confronts the court today.
“A fundamental element of Anglo-American jurisprudence is the principle that the law should be stable, fostering both equality and predictability of treatment.” Metro Renovation v. State, 249 Neb. 337, 349, 543 N.W.2d 715, 724 (1996) (Connolly, J., concurring in result). Our workers’ compensation law, with respect to farm and ranch laborers, fosters neither; workers engaged in identical labors can be treated differently based on the business structure chosen by their employers, and workers’ treatment turns on distinctions that are too subtle to be understood or anticipated.
In short, the Legislature needs to speak on this matter and provide statutory definitions that are clear and meaningful. The Legislature is the appropriate forum for the collective resolution of questions of public policy. See Parnell v. Good Samaritan Health Sys., 260 Neb. 877, 620 N.W.2d 354 (2000). Should the Legislature determine, out of articulated and legitimate policy concerns, that some, or all, farm and ranch laborers should be exempt from the Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Act, then the Legislature should so provide in a manner that clearly delineates the scope of the act. Employers and laborers may then govern *496their affairs accordingly. Should the Legislature continue to ignore the matter, this court will have little alternative but to continue its semantic distinctions between “farm or ranch” cattle and “commercial” cattle, and similar oddities. In that case, to the purchasers of farm and ranch liability or workers’ compensation insurance coverage—caveat emptor.
Stephan, J., joins in this dissent.