Edward Daniels v. Zelco

On December 17, 1985, the plaintiff Edward Daniels was injured while operating a tractor in the course of his employment. Thereafter the injured plaintiff and his wife Darlene Daniels commenced an action to recover damages, inter alia, for personal injuries as well as for his subsequent allegedly wrongful discharge against, inter alia, the defendants St. Johnsbury Trucking Company (hereinafter St. Johnsbury) and Sun Company, Inc. (hereinafter Sun). The complaint alleged that either St. Johnsbury or Sun employed the injured plaintiff and owned the tractor. In their amended answer, St. Johnsbury admitted that it was the injured plaintiffs employer and the owner of the tractor, while Sun denied those allegation. In addition, the answer asserted the affirmative defense of the exclusivity of the Workers Compensation Law. St. Johnsbury and Sun moved for summary judgment dismissing the complaint on the ground, inter alia, that the payment of Workers Compensation benefits to the injured plaintiff by St. Johnsbury constituted his exclusive remedy. In a supporting affidavit, Suns Corporate Secretary averred that Sun is a foreign holding company which owns the stock of Sun Carriers, Inc., which in turn owned St. Johnsbury at the time of the accident. By order entered February 3, 1989, the Supreme Court denied the motion without prejudice to renewal after pretrial discovery, citing "the complexity of the moving defendants various claims, coupled with the possibility that there may be facts essential to oppose the motion within the defendants knowledge". We disagree.