# Champagne v. American Alternative Insurance Corp.

> Supreme Court of Louisiana · March 19, 2013 · 112 So. 3d 179

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/4800849

## Case

- **Full name:** Rodney CHAMPAGNE, II and Wife, Nicole Champagne, both Individually and on behalf of Elizabeth Nicole Champagne v. AMERICAN ALTERNATIVE INSURANCE CORPORATION, Smeal Fire Apparatus Co., Waterous Company, Lafayette Consolidated Government, Lafayette Parish Fire Protection Association, and Daniel Lavergne
- **Court:** Supreme Court of Louisiana
- **Decided:** March 19, 2013
- **Citations:** 112 So. 3d 179; 2013 La. LEXIS 561; 2013 WL 1115362
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Dissent by Victory
- **Judges:** Associated, Guidry, Hoc, III, Kimball, Reasons, Rendered, Schott, Sits, Tempore, Victory, Weimer
- **Cited by:** 14 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/4800849

## Opinion text

VICTORY, J.,
dissents.
hi dissent from the majority’s holding that the Workers’ Compensation Law does not grant immunity to members of a volunteer fire company from suits in tort brought by co-volunteer firefighters. La. R.S. 23:1036(A) provides that workers’ compensation coverage “shall constitute the exclusive remedy of the volunteer member against the fire company as provided in R.S. 23:1032.” The reference to La. R.S. 23:1032 is not limited to any specific provision to that statute, and thus encompasses La. R.S. 23:1032(A)(1)(a), which provides that “the rights and remedies granted to an employee or his dependent on account of an injury ... shall be exclusive of all other rights ... as against his employer, ..., or employee of such employer ..., for said injury, ...” In my view, as regular firefighters are immune from suit in tort for injuries inflicted on a co-firefighter under La. R.S. 23:1032(A), it makes no sense to interpret to these statutes to deprive volunteer firefighters of this same immunity.
For the foregoing reasons, I respectfully dissent.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/4800849. Public record. Not legal advice.