Court Obscures Rational Basis Test To Eliminate Ag Exemption From Workers' Compensation Law.

In this case, the plaintiffs cases were consolidated on appeal.  They claimed that their on-the-job injuries should be covered under the state (NM) workers' compensation law.  One plaintiff tripped while picking chile and fractured her left wrist.  The other plaintiff was injured while working in a dairy when he was head-butted by a cow and pushed up against a metal door causing him to fall face-first into a concrete floor and sustain neurological damage.  The plaintiffs' claims for workers' compensation benefits were dismissed via the exclusion from the workers' compensation system for farm and ranch laborers.  On appeal, the court reversed.  Using rational basis review (the standard most deferential to the constitutionality of the provision at issue), the court could find no rational purpose for the exclusion from workers' compensation for farm and ranch laborers, and noted that the purpose of the law was to provide "quick and efficient delivery" of medical benefits to injured and disabled workers.  Thus, the court determined that the exclusion violated the constitutional equal protection guarantee.  The court stated that the exclusion circumvented the policy of the Act  which was to balance the interests and rights of the worker and the employer.  While the court stated that the exclusion "results in expensive drawn out litigation being the only available option to the employee," the court failed to note that New Mexico is one of very few states that has adopted a "pure" comparative fault system whereby the injured party could be 99 percent at fault and still recover damages - although the recovery is reduced by the percentage of the injured party's fault.  Such a system would seem to greatly enhance the likelihood of settlement of personal injury cases without protracted and expensive litigation.  However, the state tort system went completely unmentioned by the court likely because it undercuts the court's claim that the exclusion results in "drawn out litigation."  The court offered no citation to any scholarly research or statistics to back up its claim.  The court further believed that the exclusion for workers that cultivate and harvest (pick) crops, but the inclusion of workers that perform tasks associated with the processing of crops was a distinction without a difference.  However, the court made no mention (even though it was briefed) that farm laborers are more likely to be illegal immigrants than are workers that are engaged in crop processing activities, and made no mention that NM has at least four sanctuary cities or counties that harbor illegal immigrants.  The processing of workers' compensation claims for such persons is not only illegal, it is more difficult due to the lack of documentation.  Thus, an argument was provided to the court in briefs that the state had a legitimate interest in the farm laborer/processor distinction.  The court did not address the point, holding the exclusion was arbitrary on its face.  The court further dismissed the claim that the protection of the NM ag industry from additional overhead cost served a legitimate state interest.  The court made no mention of the data indicating that the cost of workers' compensation insurance coverage rates for agriculture is commonly in the 6-8 percent of payroll range, with some states reporting the cost to be approximately 15 percent and, hence, did not address the argument that the exclusion had served a legitimate state interest in keeping food costs to the public down.  The court did not address the point that has been made in similar cases that the ag exclusion slows down the mechanization of certain agricultural crop harvesting jobs as being a legitimate state interest.  The court also made no mention that the highest court in numerous other states had upheld a similar exclusion for agriculture from an equal protection constitutional challenge.  The court stated that its decision was applicable to workers' claims pending as of March 30, 2012.  That's the date, because of litigation in a different case, that the Workers' Compensation Administration was on notice that the ag exclusion was unconstitutional.  Rodriguez, et al. v. Brand West Dairy, et al., Nos., 33,104 and 33,675, 2015 N.M. App. LEXIS 69 (N.M. Ct. App. Jun. 22, 2015).