Soil Engineering Construction, Inc. v. Superior Court

Opinion

ROUSE, Acting P. J.

Petitioner, defendant in an action for wrongful death based upon the negligence of an employer, seeks a writ of mandate to compel respondent court to vacate an order issued on March 23, 1982, overruling its demurrer and to enter an order dismissing the action. Petitioner contends that respondent court lacks jurisdiction over the subject matter of the action.

Real parties are plaintiffs in an action brought in their capacity as nondependent heirs and personal representatives of the deceased employee, their son Edward Francis Morrill. The decedent, employed as a laborer by petitioner, met his death on November 24, 1980, in the ordinary course and scope of his employment when a section of the side of a hill on which he was working collapsed and buried him.

[331]

Article XIV, section 4, of the California Constitution vests the Legislature with plenary power, unlimited by any provisions of the Constitution, to create and enforce “a complete system of workers’ compensation, by appropriate legislation, and in that behalf to create and enforce a liability on the part of any or all persons to compensate any or all of their workers for injury or disability, and their dependents for death incurred or sustained by the said workers in the course of their employment, irrespective of the fault of any party.... to the end that the administration of such legislation shall accomplish substantial justice in all cases expeditiously, inexpensively, and without incumbrance of any character; all of which matters are expressly declared to be the social public policy of this State, binding upon all departments of the State government.”

Section 3600 of the Labor Code, in relevant part, provides: “Liability for the compensation provided by this division, in lieu of any other liability whatsoever to any person . .. shall, without regard to negligence, exist against an employer for any injury sustained by his employees arising out of and in the course of the employment and for the death of any employee if the injury proximately causes death, in those cases where the following conditions of compensation concur: [¶] (a) Where, at the time of the injury, both the employer and the employee are subject to the compensation provisions of this division. [¶] (b) Where, at the time of the injury, the employee is performing service growing out of and incidental to his employment and is acting within the course of his employment. [¶] (c) Where the injury is proximately caused by the employment, either with or without negligence.”