If a plaintiff is injured in a motor vehicle accident, is he entitled to workmen's compensation?

In Myers v. County of Orange, Supra, the plaintiff had alternative remedies, and the election to proceed first on one of them was an orderly and practical choice. But the uninsured motorists statute not only requires something to be done within the year, it also provides a convenient means by which the injured party may assert and preserve all of his remedies by proceeding within the year. ⁶

A recent application of the 'several legal remedies' principle is found in Elkins v. Derby, 12 Cal.3d 410, 115 Cal.Rptr. 641, 525 P.2d 81, where an injured person first sought workmen's compensation upon the theory that the defendant was his employer and then, after the compensation board had determined there had been no employment, brought a civil action against the defendant. In holding that the statute of limitations for the civil action was tolled while the plaintiff was seeking workmen's compensation, the court pointed out that the two kinds of proceedings required the plaintiff to take inconsistent positions, and that requiring him to pursue the two concurrently in different tribunals would result in 'an awkward duplication of procedures.'