175 A.D. 714 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1916
The theory of the Workmen’s Compensation Law is periodical payments of compensation or death benefits. Such payments may extend throughout the life of the injured person or for a shorter period depending on the nature of the injury.. (See Consol. Laws, chap. 67 [Laws of 1914, chap. 41], § 15, as amd. by Laws of 1915, chap. 615, and Laws of 1916, chap. 622.) They may also in case the injury causes death extend throughout the life of a surviving wife or dependent husband as the case may be, provided the wife does not again remarry or the dependent husband does not become independent. (§ 16, as amd. by Laws of 1914, chap. 316, and Laws of 1916, chap. 622.) In other words, payments may be made in installments during the life of a person entitled thereto or for shorter periods according to the nature of the case. But in any event the primary purpose and the general scheme and plan of the statute is that such payments shall be periodical and at brief
I have thus discussed the provision for commutation under section 25 (as amd. supra) because it has a direct bearing on the interpretation to be placed on section 27 (as amd. by Laws of 1916, chap. 622) under which the decision complained of herein was made and which so far as herein material is as follows: “If an award under this chapter requires payment of compensation by an employer or an insurance corporation in periodical payments, and the nature of the injury makes it possible to compute the present value of all future payments with due regard for life contingencies, the Commission may, in its discretion, at any time, compute and permit or require to be paid into the State fund an amount equal to the present value of all unpaid compensation for which liability exists, together with such additional sum as the Commission may deem necessary for a proportionate payment of expenses of administering the fund so created, such moneys to constitute an aggregate trust fund; and thereupon such employer or insurance corporation shall be discharged from any further liability under such award and payment of the same shall be assumed by the trust fund so created.” Section 25 provides in certain cases for the payment of a lump sum to the injured employee or in case of death to his dependents, whereas section 27 provides for the payment of such lump sum into the State fund, which fund then becomes liable for the periodical payments. The phraseology of the two sections is somewhat different, but their purpose is substantially the same except that under one section the lump sum payment goes to the injured employee, or in case of death his dependents, whereas under the other section the lump sum payment goes to the State fund. The amount of the payments is the same under either section and it can make no difference to the employer or insurer who receives the payment. The two sections are to be read together, therefore, and each is to be construed in the light of the other, and each is to be regarded as supplementing the other. What has been said in regard to the meaning and effect of section 25 applies also to
Our conclusions are that no set of rules can be devised to apply indiscriminately to all cases or to a certain class of cases; that the meaning of the statute is that only in exceptional cases should its policy of periodical payments be departed from; that each case must be considered with reference to its own circumstances; and that in each case the circumstances must be such as to make it appear that the departure of the Commission from the theory of periodical payments is in respect to such individual case “in the interest of justice” and the circumstances must also be such as to make “ it possible to compute the present value of all future payments with due regard for life contingencies.”
The decision of the Commission should be reversed.
All concurred, Howard, J., in result.
Decision reversed.