Bryant v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Bryant v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Opinion of the Court
Appellant is the administrator of the estate of the deceased and the guardian of the deceased’s minor child. Appellees are Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (“Wal-Mart”) and the manager of the store where the deceased worked. Appellant appeals from the trial court’s grant of summary judgment to appellees. The primary issue presented is whether appellant’s tort action is barred by the exclusive remedy provision of the Workers’ Compensation Act.
The deceased worked at a Wal-Mart store on the night restocking crew. For security reasons, the manager of the store implemented a policy of locking all doors leading into and out of the store at the close of the business day. Only management personnel had keys to the store and no one in management worked on the night crew. Consequently, employees on the night crew were locked in the store until it opened the following day without a key to exit the building. While working one night, the deceased suffered a stroke and collapsed, unconscious. When the emergency medical personnel arrived, approximately six minutes later, they were unable to enter the store because no one on the night crew had a key to the door. By the time the emergency crew was able to assist the deceased, they were unable to revive her. The deceased was taken to the hospital where she was declared brain dead, and after 15 hours, the life support systems to which she was connected were discontinued. Subsequently, appellant filed an 11-count complaint against appellees, alleging among his theories of recovery the unlawful false imprisonment of the deceased. The trial court granted appellees’ motion for summary judgment, finding that the deceased’s injuries arose out of and in the course of her employment, and appellant’s action was therefore barred by the exclusive remedy provision of the Workers’ Compensation Act (hereinafter referred to as the “Act”).
1. Appellant first asserts that the trial court erred in finding that his claim for false imprisonment was barred by the exclusivity provisions of the Workers’ Compensation Act. “False imprisonment is the unlawful detention of the person of another, for any length of time, whereby such person is deprived of his personal liberty.” OCGA § 51-7-20. “The restraint used to create the detention must be against the plaintiff’s will and be accomplished by either force or fear. [Cit.]” Wideman v. DeKalb County, 200 Ga. App. 624 (1) (b) (409 SE2d 537)
Even if appellant established a claim of false imprisonment, “[i]t is well settled in this state that a claim under the workers’ compensation act is the employee’s sole and exclusive remedy for injury or occupational disease incurred in the course of employment. This edict is statutory (OCGA §§ 34-9-11 and 34-9-289), as well as judicial, and its policy reasons are well understood. [Cits.]” Ervin v. Great Dane Trailers, 195 Ga. App. 317 (393 SE2d 467) (1990). The Act precludes recovery “for wilful or intentional acts of the employer so long as the injury arises out of and in the course of employment. [Cits.]” Superb Carpet Mills v. Thomason, 183 Ga. App. 554, 556 (359 SE2d 370) (1987). Even the employer’s failure to furnish its employees with a safe place to work must be redressed under the Act. McCormick v. Mark Heard Fuel Co., 183 Ga. App. 488 (2) (359 SE2d 171) (1987). It is undisputed that the deceased was locked in the store for business purposes, that she was engaged in the performance of her work duties at the time she suffered the stroke and that the emergency medical crew was unable to render immediate assistance to the deceased due to the delay in gaining entrance to the store. Therefore, insofar as appellant seeks to recover for the death of the deceased, that claim is barred by the exclusivity provisions of the Act.
Appellant contends however, that in certain counts of his complaint, he seeks to recover for injuries to the deceased’s peace, happiness, and feelings and that these “nonphysical” injuries are not included within the definition of injury found in the Act. “According to the Georgia Act, the definition of ‘injury’ is identical and synonymous
2. In his second enumeration of error, appellant contends that the trial court erred in holding that appellant’s RICO claim was barred by the Workers’ Compensation Act. OCGA § 16-14-4 (a) makes it “unlawful for any person, through a pattern of racketeering activity or proceeds derived therefrom, to acquire or maintain, directly or indirectly, any interest in or control of any enterprise, real property, or personal property of any nature, including money.” OCGA § 16-4-6 (c) allows any person injured by reason of a violation of § 16-14-4 to bring a civil action and recover treble damages. Appellant contends that appellees violated the RICO statute by committing the criminal act of false imprisonment on at least two occasions for the purpose of pecuniary gain. Without determining whether appellant has sufficiently alleged a claim under the RICO statute, we find no support for appellant’s argument that his RICO action is not barred by the Workers’ Compensation Act. There is nothing in the language of the RICO statute which indicates that RICO was intended to supersede the exclusivity provisions of the Workers’ Compensation Act. See Tellis v. U. S. Fidelity &c. Co., 625 FSupp. 92, 95 (N. D. Ill. 1985). Furthermore, “[t]he Georgia Workers’ Compensation Act makes no statutory exception to the exclusive remedy provision.” Pappas v. Hill-Staton Engineers, 183 Ga. App. 258, 260 (358 SE2d 625) (1987). Thus, appellant’s second enumeration is without merit.
3. Appellant next contends that appellees are estopped from asserting the exclusivity provision as a defense because they delayed filing a written report of the deceased’s death until after appellant’s
4. In his final enumeration of error, appellant contends that the trial court erred in ruling on appellees’ motion for summary judgment before appellees complied with appellant’s discovery request. The record reflects that three days before the hearing on appellees’ motion for summary judgment, appellant filed a motion to compel discovery. The record does not reveal any effort on the part of appellant to secure a ruling from the trial court on his motion to compel, nor does the record indicate that appellant objected to the trial court hearing the motion for summary judgment prior to ruling on the motion to compel. “ Tt is axiomatic that at the appellate level “ ‘(o)ne cannot complain of a judgment, order, or ruling that his own procedure or conduct procured or aided in causing.’ ” (Cit.)’ [Cit.]” Mitchell v. Wyatt, 192 Ga. App. 127, 129 (1) (384 SE2d 227) (1989).
Judgment affirmed.
Concurring Opinion
concurring specially.
I do not agree that we can hold, as a matter of law, that the facts alleged by plaintiff/appellant do not state a claim for false imprisonment. In this period of high unemployment and economic recession, we cannot say that an employee voluntarily chose to accept a job assignment by her employer simply because she did not decline the assignment. Even if the employee in this case voluntarily consented to the restriction on her liberty by being locked in the store on the evening in question, she surely withdrew her consent when it became vital for her to leave and obtain medical care after suffering a stroke. Neither do I agree that all claims for false imprisonment by an employee against an employer are compensable under the Workers’ Compensation Act (the “Act”) and therefore barred by the exclusive remedy provision. I agree, however, that the claim in this case is barred because the injury was essentially a physical injury, and not merely an injury to the employee’s peace and happiness, and therefore is a claim which is subject to the exclusive remedy provision of the Act.
The Act includes the following definition: “ ‘Injury’ or ‘personal
Each of these cases, however, involved only a claim for wrongful detention, a non-physical injury. Professor Larson notes the problem inherent in the factual situation of the case at hand, where there is a claim for false imprisonment but where the essence of the injury is compensable, physical harm. “If the essence of the tort, in law, is nonphysical, and if the injuries are of the usual non-physical sort, with physical injury being at most added to the list of injuries as a makeweight, the suit should not be barred. But if the essence of the action is recovery for physical injury or death, the action should be barred even if it can be cast in the form of a normally non-physical tort.” 2A Larson, The Law of Workmen’s Compensation, § 68.34 (a), at 13-117 (1990). See also id. at § 68.31.
The claim in the case at hand involves physical injury and death as well as false imprisonment. On appeal, plaintiff makes an admirable argument that at least that part of the claim which relates only to the allegation of false imprisonment should not be barred by the Act. The claim for false imprisonment, however, is inextricably linked to the claim for physical injury and death. In this case, the damages from the alleged false imprisonment are not only the detention, itself, but the exacerbation of the employee’s physical condition as a result of being denied the opportunity to seek medical attention during that period in which she was wrongfully detained. This physical injury is a compensable claim and thus any recovery for her injury cannot be split between a tort action and a workers’ compensation action. That the injury is essentially one which is compensable under the Act would also bar plaintiff’s RICO claim. For this reason, I agree that the judgment of the trial court must be affirmed.
This court also has held that the Workers’ Compensation Act does not bar a claim for false imprisonment by an employee against her employer. Smith v. Rich’s, Inc., 104 Ga. App. 883 (123 SE2d 316) (1961). In Smith, however, we based our holding on the ground that plaintiff’s injuries did not arise out of an “accident,” but were the result of the wilful and intentional acts of the agent of the employer. See also Skelton v. W. T. Grant Co., 331 F2d 593 (5th Cir. 1964). As the majority points out in Division 1, the courts of this state have subsequently ruled that the Act precludes recovery in tort for the wilful and intentional acts of the employer so long as the injury is otherwise compensable. Even though the rationale employed in the Smith opinion is no longer accepted, the holding is still correct and is supported by the superior rationale that the injury is simply not compensable under the act. See D. Meade Feild, Workmen’s Compensation, 14 Mercer L. Rev. 244, 261 (1962).
I also note that in Greenbaum v. Brooks, 110 Ga. App. 661 (139 SE2d 432) (1964), decided subsequent to the Smith decision, this court affirmed a jury award of damages in tort to an employee who sued his employer for false imprisonment without addressing the issue of the workers’ compensation bar. In a more recent case, Bi-Lo, Inc. v. McConnell, 199 Ga. App. 154 (404 SE2d 327) (1991), this court permitted an employee to recover from his employer for a similar tort involving non-physical injury, malicious prosecution.
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