564 S.W.2d 608 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1978
Did a referee
On August 16, 1971, appellant filed a claim for workmen’s compensation against her employer, The Bendix Corporation. The latter and its insurer, The Fidelity and Casualty Company of New York, are respondents herein. Appellant’s claim listed December 12, 1969, as the date of accident. Appellant’s claim was set for a prehearing conference on December 14, 1971, at which time it was set for hearing on March 20, 1972. The March 20, 1972, hearing did not take place as scheduled and the claim was continued and reset on eight subsequent occasions, to-wit, June 19, 1972, January 4, 1973, June 10, 1973, January 4, 1974, May 21,1974, October 28,1974, April 7,1975, and October 9, 1975. When the hearing scheduled for April 7, 1975, fell through, the
Appellant sets up and knocks down Rule II — 9 promulgated by the Division of Workmen’s Compensation pursuant to the first sentence contained in Sec. 287.650.1, RSMo 1969,
The Division of Workmen’s Compensation has no more immunity from the devastating effect of a highly accelerated caseload than the courts of this state — both are racked with a common problem. The last sentence of Sec. 287.650.1, supra, “[t]he division shall have power to strike pleadings and enter awards against any party or parties who fails or refuses to comply with its lawful orders”, is cast in language which clearly and unequivocally empowers the referee to invoke the sanction of dismissal in order to minimize the congestion of claims in these days of crowded dockets, to utilize decisional manpower to the maximum extent, and to prevent undue delay in the orderly disposition of other pending claims. Failure on the part of the legislature to have empowered referees with the power to dismiss claims for want of prosecution would have seriously hampered the ability of referees to carry out their legislatively mandated function of hearing and determining claims “upon original hearing”. Sec. 287.610.2, supra. Tangentially, and of cardinal importance, failure of the legislature to have empowered referees with statutory authority to dismiss claims for want of prosecution would have rendered them helpless, regardless of the harmful reverberations to prepared and compliant claimants, to thwart intentional, indifferent, or selfish delaying tactics on the part of a few claimants impeding the timely and orderly dispatch of the great bulk of compensation claims. Such an incongruous result was wisely avoided by the legislature by inclusion of the last sentence in Sec. 287.650.1, supra.
The power of referees to dismiss workmen’s compensation claims for want of prosecution is not a raw, unbridled power. Like comparable discretionary powers possessed by both judicial and quasi-judicial bodies, it is subject to judicial review to ferret out and remedy arbitrary or capricious dismissals which smack of abuses of discretion. In the instant case, the appellant has not suggested, or so much as even hinted, that dismissal of her claim for want of prosecution was arbitrary or capricious, thereby constituting an abuse of discretion. The facts would not bear her out if she did. Appellant limits her claim for relief to the sole ground that the referee was without power or authority to enter such an order. The very core of appellant’s singular ground is totally and thoroughly vitiated by Sec. 287.650.1, supra.
Judgment affirmed.
All concur.
. Now administrative law judge — see Sec. 287.610, RSMo Supp.1977.
. Sec. 287.650.1, RSMo 1969, provides as follows: “The division of workmen’s compensation1 shall have such powers as may be necessary to carry out all the provisions of this chapter, and it may make such rules and regulations as may be necessary for any such purpose, subject to the approval of the industrial commission of Missouri. The division shall have power to strike pleadings and enter awards against any party or parties who fails or refuses to comply with its lawful orders.”