IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF IDAHO Docket No. 45415 ELFEGO MARQUEZ, ) ) Claimant-Respondent, ) ) Boise, May 2018 Term v. ) ) Filed: August 3, 2018 PIERCE PAINTING, INC., Employer, and ) STATE INSURANCE FUND, Surety, ) Karel A. Lehrman, Clerk ) Defendants-Appellants. ) ) ________________________________________ ) Appeal from the Industrial Commission of the State of Idaho. The order of the Commission is reversed and this case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this Opinion. Cantrill Skinner Lewis Casey & Sorensen, LLP, Boise, for appellants. Clinton O. Casey argued. Racine Olson Nye & Budge, Chartered, Pocatello, and Middleton Law, PLLC, Middleton, for respondent. James C. Arnold argued. _______________________________________________ BEVAN, Justice. Elfego Marquez (“Marquez”) sustained an impairment from an industrial accident while employed at Pierce Painting, Inc. (“Pierce Painting”). Marquez subsequently filed a workers’ compensation complaint. Pierce Painting through its surety, the State Insurance Fund (“SIF”), paid Marquez’s medical bills, total temporary disability benefits, and permanent partial impairment benefits. SIF did not pay Marquez’s permanent disability benefits, claiming that Marquez was not eligible for permanent disability due to his status as an undocumented immigrant. The Industrial Commission (the “Commission”) disagreed and ordered that Marquez was entitled to pursue a claim for permanent disability without reference to his status as an undocumented immigrant. Pierce Painting and SIF appeal the order of the Commission. We reverse. 1 I. FACTS AND PROCEDURE Marquez was born in 1970 and is a citizen of Mexico. He received a university degree in Mexico where he became a teacher and taught first and third year elementary school for seven years. In approximately 2000, Marquez illegally immigrated from Mexico to the United States. After entering the United States, Marquez went to southern California, where he purchased a social security card and used it to obtain employment washing dishes at a restaurant. After working in California for approximately seven months, Marquez moved to Emmett, Idaho and soon after began working at Pierce Painting. Marquez’s primary job at Pierce Painting was to prepare buildings to be painted. He was able to work at Pierce Painting by providing the social security card he purchased in California. Pierce Painting knew Marquez was an undocumented immigrant and that his social security card was not legally issued to him. Not long after beginning at Pierce Painting, a supervisor received a notice of garnishment associated with the social security number used by Marquez. Evidently, the individual to whom the social security number had been legally issued had an outstanding child support delinquency. The supervisor instructed Marquez to obtain a different social security card. Marquez complied by illegally obtaining a different social security card. On May 20, 2010, Marquez sustained an impairment from an industrial accident while preparing a building to be painted. Marquez was standing on two five gallon buckets stacked on top of each other to reach an area above a tall doorway when he fell onto a concrete floor fracturing his right wrist and injuring his right arm and ...
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