Gutierrez v. Petoseed Co.

Opinion

COBEY, Acting P. J.

Plaintiffs, Sylvia Gutierrez, a minor, by her guardian ad litem, Ruben E. Gutierrez, Lilia Gutierrez, Valia Rios, Amparo Rios, and Maria Rios, appeal from a summary judgment in their personal injury action in favor of a defendant herein, Petoseed

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Company, Inc., a corporation (hereafter Petoseed).

1

The summary judgment was apparently granted plaintiffs’ insured employer, Petoseed, on the basis that, since plaintiffs’ injuries were sustained during a lunch break on their employer’s premises, these injuries were compensable by Petoseed exclusively under the workers’ compensation law. (Lab. Code, div. 4.)

2

We agree and will affirm for reasons that follow, although this precise question appears to be one of first impression in the courts of this state.

Facts

The injuries sued upon of the five plaintiffs occurred when each simultaneously fell on Bell Ranch (which was under lease to Petoseed) from a pickup truck they had boarded during an uncompensated lunch break on April 17, 1974. Each plaintiff was then a member of a work crew of Petoseed engaged in planting bell peppers. At the time of the accident the truck, at the direction of the employer, was being backed into the shade to protect the seedlings on it. Petoseed was then appropriately insured against workers’ compensation liability. (See Lab. Code, § 3700, subd. (a).)

Discussion

Labor Code section 3601, subdivision (a), provides, generally, that, as against an appropriately insured employer (see Lab. Code, § 3706), the right to recover workers’ compensation for a compensable injury shall be the exclusive remedy for such injury. Labor Code section 3600, states this same limitation in different language. (See

Duprey

v.

Shane

(1952) 39 Cal.2d 781, 789-790 [249 P.2d 8];