 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Employee Leasing Services in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
HATCH v. LIDO CO. OF NEW ENGLAND6/11/1992
Defendants, The Lido Company of New England, Inc., (the employer) and its president, William Pescosolido, seek review of an order of the Superior Court (Cumberland County, Cole, J.) denying their motion for summary judgment in an action brought by their employee, Theodore L. Hatch, for injuries he sustained in the workplace. The court invoked the "dual persona" doctrine and ruled that even though the employer had secured worker's compensation payments and was immune from suit in its capacity as employer, it
T-M Oil Co., Inc. (T-M), owned and operated a gas station in Gorham until 1977, when it merged with six other companies and became part of The Lido Company of New England, Inc. (Lido). As a result of the merger, Lido assumed T-M's liabilities pursuant to 13-A M.R.S.A. § 905(2)(E) (1981). William Pescosolido was T-M's president from 1971 until the merger, when he became Lido's chief executive officer. Hatch was later hired by Lido to work at the Gorham gas station.
In 1981, Hatch was injured when fumes from a leaking gas tank seeped into the basement of the station and exploded. Hatch received workers' compensation benefits including a lump sum settlement from Lido's insurer pursuant to the Maine Workers' Compensation Act.
In 1987, Hatch sued T-M, Lido, Pescosolido, and eight other defendants alleging negligence in the installation and maintenance of the tank from which the gas had leaked. T-M, Lido, and Pescosolido moved for summary judgment claiming immunity under the Maine Workers' Compensation Act. The court granted the motion in favor of T-M on the ground that T-M did not exist as a separate entity after the merger. Because T-M had never employed Hatch and was not exempt from suit, the court denied the motion as to Lido and Pescosolido as its successor and former president respectively. Subsequently, the Superior Court granted defendants' motion to report the interlocutory ruling pursuant to M.R.Civ.P. 72(c).
Employers who secure payment of workers' compensation in accordance with the Workers' Compensation Act are "exempt from civil actions . . . involving personal injuries sustained by an employee arising out of and in the course of his employment. . . ." 39 M.R.S.A. § 4 (1989 & Supp. 1991). The exemption is extended to "employees, supervisors, officers and directors of the employer," 39 M.R.S.A. § 4, but does not extend to third-parties "other than the employer" who are liable for damages resulting from the injury. 39 M.R.S.A. § 68 (1989). If the injured employee is successful in suing liable third-parties, the employer is entitled to reimbursement of amounts paid to the injured employee. Id.
The exemption is part and parcel of the compact constructed by the legislature whereby "the employer gives up his normal defenses and assumes automatic liability, while the employee gives up his right to common-law verdicts." 2A A. Larson, The Law of Workmen's Compensation § 72.22 (1989); see also Beverage v. Cumberland Farms Northern, Inc., 502 A.2d 486, 489 (Me. 1985). Officers of the employer are parties to this compromise and are entitled to the protection of the exemption, but third parties are not. Under the dual persona doctrine, however, an otherwise exempt employer (or officer) may become liable to suit as a third party "if — and only if — he possesses a second persona so completely independent from and unrelated to his status as employer that by established standards the law recognizes [the employer] as a separate legal person." Id. § 72.81. According to Larson, the dual persona doctrine applies only when "the second set of obligations independent of the defendant's obligations as an employer. . . . t must be possible to say that the duty arose so
Page 1 2 Maine Employee Leasing Services
Employee Leasing Services
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Employee Leasing Services in your area.
|
|