138 W. Va. 303 | W. Va. | 1953
Lead Opinion
The State Compensation Commissioner granted claimant, Claude E. Haney, an eighty per cent permanent partial disability award, on the 6th day of February, 1947, which award was payable in three hundred and twenty weekly payments. Had the payments been made in the usual manner, the last payment would have been made on September 20, 1951. The claimant, however, on August 25, 1949, pursuant to the provisions of Code, 23-4-17, as amended, petitioned the commissioner for commutation of periodical benefits, and the commissioner awarded claimant a lump sum settlement, the amount of
Code, 23-4-16, as amended, provides time limitations as to the filing of such petitions and, in so far as pertinent, reads: “The power and jurisdiction of the commissioner over each case shall be continuing and he may from time to time, after due notice to the employer, make such modifications or changes with respect to former findings or orders as may be justified: Provided, however, that no further award may be made in fatal cases arising after March seventh, one thousand nine hundred twenty-nine, except within two years after the death of the employee, or, in case of nonfatal injuries, on and after March seventh, one thousand nine hundred twenty-nine, except within three years after payments for temporary disability shall have ceased or within one year after the commissioner shall have made the last payment in any permanent disability case: * *
Section 39 of Chapter 10 of the Acts of the Legislature of 1913, the act creating the workmen’s compensation fund, provided that “any employe or dependent”, to be entitled to compensation under the act, must file an application “in due form within six months from and after
From the course of this legislation, dealing with time limitations for filing petitions before the commissioner, as well as from the language used in the several acts, we think it definitely appears that the Legislature has intended, by the several acts, to provide limits as to the time for the filing of such petition in every type of case wherein a reopening may be had. It also appears that from the time of the enactment of the provision first
Petitioner here argues that where periodical benefits are commuted, and payments therefor made to the employee in one sum, as provided in Code, 23-4-17, as amended, the time from which the one year limitation begins to run is the date of payment of that sum, not the date the last periodical payment would have been made had payments been made in the usual course. We think, however, that Code, 23-4-17, relating only to commutation of periodical benefits, does not have the effect of controlling the period of limitation, as contended for by petitioner, and that the one year limitation should begin as of the date that the last periodical payment would have been made had payments been made in the usual course. This, apparently, is the view taken by the State Compensation Commissioner and the Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Board. We believe this view is necessitated by numerous holdings of this Court requiring construction of the provisions of .the Act so that it will accord with the benign purposes thereof. See Pannell v. Commissioner, 126 W. Va. 725, 30 S. E. 2d 129; Poccardi v. Commissioner, 82 W. Va. 497, 96 S. E. 790. A holding to the contrary would, in cases where periodical payments are commuted, have the effect of shortening fhe period of time allowed the employee to reopen such a claim, shorten the time in which the employer could present evidence as to complete or maximum recovery, and place in the commissioner the power to fix a date for the commencement of the running of the time
No decision of this Court is cited, and we find none, discussing the precise point involved. Counsel for petitioner rely upon cases like Barnhart v. Commissioner, 128 W. Va. 29, 35 S. E. 2d 686; Holder v. Commissioner, 112 W. Va. 637, 166 S. E. 365; and Long Flame Coal Company v. Commissioner, 111 W. Va. 409, 163 S. E. 16. The question involved in the Barnhart case related to the method of computing time, where an act is required to be performed within a certain period. We can not see that the holding has any relation to the construction of the pertinent statute. The Holder case simply holds that “where timely action is mandatory under the statute”, neglect of counsel will not excuse delay. The Long Flame Coal Company case points out that “where the death of the employee occurs more than one year from the date of injury”, it is then immaterial whether the employee died one day or four years after expiration of the one year limitation, in determining whether the petition was timely filed.
Being of the opinion that the order of the Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Board, affirming the holding of the State Compensation Commissioner, is correct, it must be affirmed.
Affirmed.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting:
In my opinion the conclusion reached by the majority of the Court in this proceeding places a distorted and totally unwarranted construction upon a statutory provision which is plain and unambiguous and is not subject to judicial interpretation; and for that reason I respectfully but emphatically dissent.
The sole question here involved is whether the one year period provided by Section 16, Article 4, Chapter 23, Code, 1931, as amended by Section 16, Article 4, Chap
The pertinent part of the applicable statute, Section 16, Article 4, Chapter 23, Code, 1931, as amended, provides that “The power and jurisdiction of the commissioner over each case shall be continuing and he may from time to time, after due notice to the employer, make such modifications or changes with respect to former ^findings or orders as may be justified: Provided, however, That no further award may be made in fatal cases arising after March seventh, one thousand nine hundred twenty-nine, except within two years after the death of the employee, or, in case of non-fatal injuries, on and after March seventh, one thousand nine hundred twenty-nine, except within three years after payments for temporary disability shall have ceased or within one year after the commissioner shall have made the last payment in any permanent disability case: * * *.” The statutory provision just quoted is clear and free from any ambiguity. It states that no further award may be made in case of non-fatal injuries, on or after March 7, 1929, “except *. * * within one year after the commissioner shall have made the last 'payment in any permanent disability case”; and it seems crystal clear to me that this plain language means exactly what it expressly states. (Italics supplied.) The provision of the statute, being clear and unambiguous, should have been applied, not interpreted, by the Court.
When a statute is clear and unambiguous and the legislative intent is plain the statute should not be interpreted by the courts. Pond Creek Pocahontas Company v. Alexander, 137 W. Va. 864, 74 S. E. 2d 590; State v. Ep-
By undertaking to interpret the statute the Court, in effect, rewrites the provision “within one year after the commissioner shall have made the last payment” and changes it in substance to “within one year after the last payment would have become due”. In so doing the clearly expressed intent of the Legislature is defeated and the provision of the statute as enacted by the Legislature is emasculated. The difference between the provision of the statute in the form enacted by the Legislature and the provision as now interpreted by the majority is as distinct and farreaching as the difference between the payment of a debt and the occurrence of its maturity which, as everyone knows, is often followed by failure to pay. If the Legislature had intended that the time within which an additional award of permanent disability could be made to an injured employee, who had previously been awarded permanent disability, should be one year after the last payment in any permanent disability case becomes due it could, and doubtless would, have so provided by apt and appropriate language. I am unwilling to sanction judicial action which by unwarranted construction changes a plain statutory provision which fixes one year from the time the last
In this case the claimant requested the commissioner to commute the periodic benefits, which would not have become due and payable in full until September 20, 1951, to a lump sum payment and before that date to pay him the amount so commuted. This the commissioner did and the benefits as commuted were paid to the claimant in one lump sum and by him accepted, on September 30, 1949. On that day the last payment of the award was made by the commissioner and under the clear provision of the statute the one year period in which any further award could be made began at that time and expired on September 30, 1950. Any application for a further award, under the statute, must have been made before September 30, 1950, and to permit an application to be.made by the claimant on January 23, 1952, approximately twenty eight months after the last payment of the award was made on September 30, 1949, is simply to disregard and ignore the plain terms of the statute.
The reasoning by which the majority would justify its decision is, in my opinion, utterly unsound and completely unconvincing and appears to be based on two faulty premises. One premise is that the Legislature has from time to time, by certain amendments to the Workmen’s Compensation statute, enlarged the originally fixed limits of time within which a claimant for compensation benefits might invoke the various remedies provided by the statute. The other premise is that because of this attitude of the Legislature the well established rule that Workmen’s Compensation statutes should be liberally construed applies. From the legislative history of these enlargements, recited in some detail in the majority opinion which, however, concedes that the one year limit has not been enlarged by any of the enumerated amend
Despite the liberality of the Legislature in extending time limits in other respects it has not, by the amendments referred to in the majority opinion, enlarged the one year period after the last payment by the commissioner of an award in any permanent disability case. But even if it had enlarged that period at different times by successive amendments, it had, before the filing of the present claim, fixed a definite limit of one year after the last payment has been made, and it is not the province of the courts to ignore or violate that limit or to undertake by any method of judicial interpretation, or otherwise, to enlarge or extend it. If a claimant should have more than one year after payment in full of his award of permanent disability has been made in which to apply for an additional award, which is purely a question of legislative policy, the additional time should be given to him by the Legislature and not by any court.
It is well settled that the rule of liberal construction, as any other rule of statutory construction, applies only when the statute is ambiguous and its meaning is doubtful or uncertain. Raynes v. Nitro Pencil Company, 132 W. Va. 417, 52 S. E. 2d 248; State v. Patachas, 96 W. Va. 203, 122 S. E. 545; Kelley and Moyers v. Bowman, 68 W. Va. 49, 69 S. E. 456. Here, as already pointed out, the provision of the statute is clear and unambiguous, and, for that reason it is not subject to judicial inter
In my judgment the legislative history of amendments to the Workmen’s Compensation statutes is of no importance and, as the statute is plain and unambiguous, the rule of liberal statutory construction does not apply. In considering and resolving the question involved I would disregard legislative history and give recognition to statutory and factual realities. The statute, in plain terms, limits the time within which to apply for an additional award to the period of one year after the last payment of a prior award of permanent disability has been made; the award was paid to the claimant, at his request and presumably solely for his benefit and convenience, and by him accepted, in one lump sum, on September 20, 1949; and the last payment of that award was made by the commissioner more than one year before the claimant filed his application for an additional award.