Defendant, a workers’ compensation insurer, appeals the denial of its motion to set aside a default judgment entered against it in an action by plaintiff, another workers’ compensation insurer, seeking restitution for unjust enrichment. According to defendant, the judgment is void because the trial court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the action. Defendant argues that, under the Workers’ Compensation Law, exclusive jurisdiction over the matter lay with the Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) and the Department of Consumer and Business Services (DCBS). Plaintiff responds that, as a court of general jurisdiction under the Oregon Constitution, the trial court had jurisdiction over its unjust enrichment claim. We conclude that the trial court did have subject matter jurisdiction and therefore affirm.
The relevant facts are not in dispute. Plaintiff and defendant are both insurance companies licensed to provide workers’ compensation insurance in Oregon. As luck would have it, in 2002 they happened to be providing coverage for two different insureds with similar names: one of plaintiffs insureds was “Keystone Automotive,” while one of defendant’s insureds was “Keystone RV.” Duvall was an employee at Keystone RV. In January 2002, Duvall filed a workers’ compensation claim, and the Workers’ Compensation Division (WCD) mistakenly submitted the claim to plaintiff rather than to defendant. Plaintiff mistakenly accepted the claim and began processing it under its “Keystone Automotive” account. In May 2002, Keystone Automotive informed plaintiff that Duvall was not one of its employees, and never had been.
Realizing that it had mistakenly accepted the claim, plaintiff asked defendant to assume responsibility for it, but defendant declined to do so. Plaintiff then attempted to revoke its acceptance by issuing a “backup denial” letter pursuant to ORS 656.262(6)(a), a statute that allows an insurer to revoke its acceptance of a claim if, among other things, it “later obtains evidence” that it is not responsible for the claim. At a subsequent hearing, in which defendant was joined, an administrative law judge (ALJ) ruled that plaintiff was barred from issuing a backup denial because the evidence on which the denial was based — i.e., that plaintiff was not the correct insurer — did not qualify as later-obtained evidence. See Barrett Business Services, Inc. v. Stewart,
Plaintiff reached a global settlement with Duvall and paid his claim. Plaintiff then initiated a circuit court action against defendant for unjust enrichment. Plaintiffs complaint alleged that defendant was the insurer who should have covered the claim and that defendant had been unjustly enriched when plaintiff was forced to pay the claim. Plaintiff sought $49,497 in damages, including the cost of the settlement and attorney fees and costs that plaintiff had incurred in attempting to defend against the claim. Defendant did not timely answer. On June 8, 2005, the trial court entered a default judgment against defendant.
Pursuant to ORCP 71 B(l), defendant then moved to set aside the judgment as void. Defendant argued that the circuit court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over plaintiff’s action because the legislature, in creating the workers’ compensation system, had vested exclusive jurisdiction for such matters in the WCB and the DCBS. The trial court denied the motion, concluding that the circuit court that had entered the default judgment, as a court of general jurisdiction, did have jurisdiction over plaintiffs unjust enrichment claim.
Defendant now appeals, renewing its argument that the default judgment that the court entered is void because the circuit court that entered it lacked subject matter jurisdiction. Defendant contends that at the core of plaintiffs complaint is just the kind of
Plaintiff responds that the default judgment is not void because the trial court had jurisdiction over its claim. Plaintiff denies that its equitable claim raises the same issue already decided in the backup denial hearings. The issue it raised in its lawsuit, plaintiff argues, was not whether it was “responsible,” under the workers’ compensation statutes, for paying Duvall’s claim, but simply whether, as a matter of equity, defendant should have to reimburse plaintiff for a claim that plaintiff mistakenly accepted and that plaintiff had already paid. Plaintiff argues that none of the administrative remedies cited by defendant is even applicable under circumstances of this case, and nothing in the workers’ compensation statutes demonstrates that the legislature intended to divest the courts of jurisdiction over a claim for unjust enrichment of the type at issue here. Jurisdiction over that kind of equitable action, plaintiff argues, remains vested in the circuit courts.
Whether a court has subject matter jurisdiction is a question of law. See Estate of Selmar A. Hutchins v. Fargo,
Restitution for unjust enrichment is a venerable claim for relief sounding in equity, the underlying principles of which date back to Roman law and the Digest of Justinian. See James Gordley, The Common Law in the Twentieth Century: Some Unfinished Business, 88 Cal L Rev 1815, 1869 (2000) (tracing development of unjust enrichment and the law of restitution). Under Article VII (Original), section 9, Oregon’s courts have jurisdiction over unjust enrichment claims. See, e.g., Summer Oaks Limited Partnership v. McGinley,
Defendant, as we have noted, argues that the legislature did negate plaintiffs claim when it created the workers’ compensation system. Its argument takes two tacks, focusing first on the overall policy of the workers’ compensation scheme and then proceeding to focus more narrowly on two specific statutory remedies within it. Defendant first argues that circuit court jurisdiction over plaintiffs complaint is inconsistent with the underlying purpose of the workers’ compensation system as a whole, which, as this court recognized in SAIF v. Harris,
Defendant first argues that the purpose of the Workers’ Compensation Law was to “create a single system to address all aspects of workers’ compensation claims and avoid litigation.” Moreover, under Harris, defendant argues, the workers’ compensation system, when considered as a whole, reveals that the legislature intended to divest the courts of jurisdiction over workers’ compensation disputes. Thus, according to defendant, allowing plaintiff to bring its equitable claim in circuit court would be counter to the policy of the Workers’ Compensation Law and counter to our decision in Harris.
We disagree. Harris involved a claimant who had suffered a back injury and to whom the workers’ compensation department initially determined permanent partial disability should be awarded.
Our decision in Harris was predicated on the facts that (1) an injured worker’s right to compensation was at issue, so the case was “a matter concerning a claim” under the statute, and (2) the Workers’ Compensation Law expressly provides, in very broad language, that the hearings division had authority over “matters concerning a claim.” That decision was in keeping with the stated purpose of the act, which is to provide injured workers a forum for obtaining relief without having to resort to “long and costly litigation.” ORS 656.012. Indeed, following Harris, we have repeatedly concluded that, for the class of cases that constitute “matters concerning a claim,” the decision and review provisions of the Workers’ Compensation Law are exclusive. See, e.g., Gordineer v. Bellotti,
Because the underlying dispute here is not a “matter concerning a claim” but a dispute between insurance companies, the only relevant questions are (1) whether the legislature, in drafting the workers’ compensation statutes, has created specific administrative remedies intended to resolve this particular kind of dispute and, (2) if so, whether the legislature intended those remedies to replace or negate plaintiffs preexisting restitution claim. Anderson/DeShaw,
Defendant identifies two specific workers’ compensation statutes that it contends demonstrate the legislature’s clear intention to divest the circuit courts of jurisdiction over disputes like the one at issue in this case: ORS 656.262(6)(a), which allows for a backup denial subject to hearings before the WCB; and ORS 656.307, which provides specific procedures, within the DOBS, for handling disputes between insurers over which insurer should pay a claim. We consider each of those statutes in turn, ascertaining their intended meanings by reference to their wording in context and referring, if necessary, to legislative history and other interpretive aids. PGE v. Bureau of Labor and Industries,
We begin with ORS 656.262(6)(a), which provides, in relevant part:
“If the insurer or self-insured employer accepts a claim in good faith, in a case not involving fraud, misrepresentation or other illegal activity by the worker, and later obtains evidence that the claim is not compensable or evidence that the insurer or self-insured employer is not responsible for the claim, the insurer or self-insured employer may revoke the claim acceptance and issue a formal notice of claim denial, if such revocation of acceptance and denial is issued no later than two years after the date of the initial acceptance. If the worker requests a hearing on such revocation of acceptance and denial, the insurer or self-insured employer must prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the claim is not compensable or that the insurer or self-insured employer is not responsible for the claim.”
As the text of the statute makes clear, the only issue in an ORS 656.262(6)(a) hearing is whether an insurer that has accepted a claim may revoke that acceptance on the basis of later-obtained evidence. The purpose of the hearing is to resolve that single issue, as between the claimant and the insurer. See CNA Ins. Co. v. Magnuson,
We turn to the other statute cited by defendant, ORS 656.307, which provides, in relevant part:
“(1)(a) Where there is an issue regarding:
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“(C) Responsibility between two or more employers or their insurers involving payment of compensation for one or more accidental injuries;
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“The Director of the Department of Consumer and Business Services shall, by order, designate who shall pay the claim, if the employers and insurers admit that the claim is otherwise compensable. * * *
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“(2) The Director then shall request the Workers’ Compensation Board chairperson to appoint an Administrative Law Judge to determine the responsible paying party. The proceedings shall be conducted in the same manner as any other hearing and any further appeal shall be conducted pursuant to ORS 656.295 and 656.298.
“(3) When a determination of the responsible paying party has been made, the director shall direct any necessary monetary adjustment between the parties involved. Any monetary adjustment not reimbursed by an insurer or self-insured employer shall be recovered from the Consumer and Business Services Fund. Any stipulation or agreement under subsection (6) of this section shall not obligate the Consumer and Business Services Fund for reimbursement without prior approval of the Director of the Department of Consumer and Business Services.
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“(5) The claimant shall be joined in any proceeding under this section as a necessary party, but may elect to be treated as a nominal party. If the claimant appears at any such proceeding and actively and meaningfully participates through an attorney, the Administrative Law Judge may require that a reasonable fee for the claimant’s attorney be paid by the employer or insurer determined by the Administrative Law Judge to be the party responsible for paying the claim.”
ORS 656.307 creates a set of procedural steps to ensure the prompt payment of compensable claims to an injured worker in those cases in which there is a dispute between employers or insurers as to which of them will be responsible for paying the claim. In order to ensure that a claimant does not have to wait for a dispute among insurers to be resolved before the claim is paid, the director makes an initial order designating which insurer shall pay the claim, ORS 656.307(1); that is followed by proceedings before an ALJ to determine responsibility, ORS 656.307(2), and finally, any “necessary monetary adjustments” as between the insurers that are party to the proceeding, ORS 656.307(3). The claimant is, by necessity, joined in the proceeding, ORS 656.307(5).
It is evident from the statute’s text that the circumstance that the legislature thus sought to address when establishing this particular administrative remedy was a dispute between employers, or their insurers, over who bears responsibility for a compensable claim. See also Oremus v. Oregonian Pub. Co.,
In sum, we can find no indication that the legislature intended to divest the court of its jurisdiction over plaintiffs claim for restitution for unjust enrichment. The substance of plaintiffs complaint is not a “matter concerning a claim” that this court has said is within the exclusive jurisdiction of the WCB, and neither of the specific statutory remedies that defendant identifies — ORS 656.256(6) or ORS 656.307— created applicable administrative remedies, much less exclusive administrative remedies, that may be said to have negated plaintiffs claim. Nor are we aware of any other remedies created by the workers’ compensation statutes that are intended to replace a claim for restitution under these circumstances. We conclude that the Workers’ Compensation Law did not divest the circuit court of jurisdiction over plaintiffs claim. The default judgment entered by the circuit court is not void, and, therefore, the trial court did not err in denying defendant’s ORCP 71 motion for relief from the judgment.
Affirmed.
Notes
Defendant argues that, under Liberty Northwest Ins. Corp. v. SAIF Corp.,