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Appleby v. State ex rel Wyoming Workers' Safety and Compensation Div.6/5/2002
fficient delivery of indemnity and medical benefits to injured and disabled workers at a reasonable cost to the employers who are subject to the Worker's Compensation Act. It is the specific intent of the legislature that benefit claims cases be decided on their merits and that the common law rule of "liberal construction" based on the supposed "remedial" basis of workers' benefits legislation shall not apply in these cases. The worker's benefit system in Wyoming is based on a mutual renunciation of common law rights and defenses by employers and employees alike. Accordingly, the legislature declares that the Worker's Compensation Act is not remedial in any sense and is not to be given a broad liberal construction in favor of any party. 1994 Wyo. Sess. Laws, Ch. 86 § 2 (emphasis added).
[ ] The Workers' Compensation Act (Act) must be interpreted as implementing Wyo. Const. Art. 10, § 4 which in relevant part states that " he right of each employee to compensation from the fund shall be in lieu of and shall take the place of any and all rights of action against any employer contributing as required by law to the fund in favor of any person or persons by reason of the injuries or death." We have recognized that by this provision and the Act workers do not have a cause of action against employers but are assured of benefits for compensable injuries. "The traditional tort recovery, with its essential elements and historical defenses, was replaced by a state-administered industrial insurance program that required no showing of fault." Mills v. Reynolds, 807 P.2d 383, 389 (Wyo. 1991). See also Anderson v. Solvay Minerals, Inc., 3 P.3d 236, 240 (Wyo. 2000).
[ ] We have previously interpreted Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 27-14-101(b) and determined that the Legislature has specifically renounced any rule affording liberal construction to workers' compensation statutes, and our statutory interpretations must be reached without the assistance of any presumption in favor of coverage. State ex rel. Wyo. Workers' Safety and Comp. Div. v. Sparks, 973 P.2d 507, 510 (Wyo. 1999). We interpret both the constitutional provision and the statutory scheme in a way that gives effect to the lawmakers' intent and preserves the historic compromise between workers and employers. Summers, 987 P.2d at 157. We also interpret the statute as intending to "assure the quick and efficient delivery of indemnity and medical benefits to injured and disabled workers." Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 27-14-101(b) (LexisNexis 2001). In interpreting subsection 101(b), the risk of loss is placed on industry rather than on the individual employee. Casper Oil Co. v. Evenson, 888 P.2d 221, 227 (Wyo. 1995).
[ ] In interpreting the Act, we have applied equitable estoppel against the Division, saying:
Equitable estoppel should not be invoked against a government or public agency functioning in its governmental capacity, except in rare and unusual circumstances and may not be invoked where it would serve to defeat the effective operation of a policy adopted to protect the public.
Our holding in Bauer v. State ex rel. Wyoming Workers' Compensation Division, 695 P.2d 1048 (Wyo. 1985), delineates, however, a rare and unusual circumstance in which equitable estoppel operates against a public agency. Rivera, 796 P.2d at 450 (quoting Big Piney Oil & Gas Co. v. Wyo. Oil & Gas Conservation Comm'n, 715 P.2d 557, 560 (Wyo. 1996)).
Plainly, we have determined that equitable estoppel arises and is permitted under the Act. As recently as 1999, we rejected the Division's assertion that statutory language rendered obsolete our rationale for the application of equitable estoppel doctrine. Barker, 978 P.2d at 1160. Nothing i
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