## Facts

- Philip McNeal operated a waste removal business and hired 15-year-old Christopher Girard to help collect rubbish.
- McNeal did not obtain or keep on file a required work permit for Girard, who was under 16.
- About four hours after being hired, Girard fell from the back of a truck and was struck and killed while working.
- McNeal maintained workers’ compensation insurance coverage in compliance with the Maine Workers’ Compensation Act.
- Jeanette Fanion, as personal representative of Girard’s estate, brought a wrongful-death action alleging violations of Maine child labor laws, including the work-permit requirement and an alleged prohibition on employing minors in a “mechanical establishment.”
- For purposes of summary judgment, the courts assumed the employment violated the cited child labor provisions.

## Issues

1. Whether a minor employed in violation of Maine’s child labor laws is limited to remedies under the Maine Workers’ Compensation Act for a work-related injury or death.
2. Whether the illegality of the minor’s employment permits a tort action notwithstanding the Act’s exclusive-remedy provisions.

## Decision

- The Maine Supreme Judicial Court affirmed summary judgment for McNeal.
- The court held that a minor, even if employed in violation of the child labor laws, remains limited to remedies provided by the Workers’ Compensation Act for work-related injuries or death.
- The Act’s exclusivity provisions barred Fanion’s common-law wrongful-death suit.

## Legal Principles

- When an employment relationship is covered by the Workers’ Compensation Act, the employee’s remedy and the employer’s liability are exclusive to the statutory compensation system.
- Minors, including those unlawfully employed, are treated as “employees” for purposes of workers’ compensation coverage unless the statute creates an exception.
- Illegality under separate child labor statutes does not, by itself, void workers’ compensation coverage or create a judicial exception to the exclusive-remedy rule.
- Public-policy and contract-based arguments attacking the enforceability of the employment agreement do not control the statutory scope of workers’ compensation coverage and exclusivity.

## Conclusion

The court held that workers’ compensation provided the sole remedy for the death of an illegally employed minor occurring in the course of employment, and it affirmed summary judgment barring the estate’s tort claim against the employer.


Fanion v. McNeal, 577 A.2d 2 (Me. 1990)