Butts v. Thomas

The applicable 2-year statute of limitation for personal injury claims barred the employer's suit to recover worker's compensation benefits paid to its employee, who was involved in a car accident in Georgia.

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Coca-Cola Bottling Company United, Inc. brought suit in the name of its employee Bobby Wayne Butts to recover workers’ compensation benefits paid pursuant to Tennessee law arising out of a car accident involving Butts and Janet Rosser Thomas that occurred in Catoosa County, Georgia. The Superior Court of Catoosa County granted Thomas’s motion for summary judgment, in which Thomas argued that the claim was barred by the statute of limitations. Coca-Cola appeals. The complaint alleges that Butts, a Coca-Cola employee, was injured on August 18, 2005 while acting within the course and scope of his employment and that he received worker’s compensation benefits from Coca-Cola under the Tennessee worker’s compensation act. Coca-Cola alleges that Tennessee law governs its right to maintain this suit. Under Tennessee law, even after receiving benefits, Butts was authorized to sue Thomas in tort. Tenn Code Ann. § 50-6-112 a. The same law provides, however, that if the employee fails to bring an action against the tortfeasor for a period of one year, the claim is assigned by operation of law to the employer who then has six months to file suit against the tortfeasor. Tenn. Code Ann. § 50-6-112 d 2.

In this case, Butts did not sue Thomas, so Coca-Cola brought suit against Thomas in Georgia on February 13, 2008. Although over two years had passed since the accident, Coca-Cola relies on another provision of the same Tennessee Code section that provides that if the cause of action arises in another state, in this case Georgia, that state’s statute of limitation applies to the employee’s tort claim. Coca-Cola argues, accordingly, that the correct limitation period is calculated by taking the Georgia two-year limitation period for torts and adding the six-month period authorized by the Tennessee Code for the employer to file suit after the employee declines to do so.

Butts v. Thomas

The applicable 2-year statute of limitation for personal injury claims barred the employer's suit to recover worker's compensation benefits paid to its employee, who was involved in a car accident in Georgia.

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