468 N.E.2d 766 | Ohio Ct. App. | 1983
This is an appeal from a decision of the Lake County Court of Common Pleas. Defendant-appellant, Raymond A. Connor, is the Administrator of the Bureau of Workers' Compensation; the employer is the Light Alloy Manufacturing Company. Plaintiff-appellee is Margaret L. Horvath, a widow-claimant under the Workers' Compensation Act.
On October 13, 1977, appellee's husband (Joseph P. Horvath) died. Her complaint alleges that his death was caused by silicosis contracted in the scope of his employment at Light Alloy Manufacturing Company.
At the time of appellee's husband's death, R.C.
On October 11, 1979, appellee filed an application for death benefits claiming silicosis as the cause of death. On October 16, 1980, the district hearing officer denied appellee's claim for the reason that it had not been filed within six months of her husband's death. This decision was affirmed by the Regional Board of Review and the Industrial Commission.
On appeal to the court of common pleas, the administrator moved to dismiss the appeal. This motion was denied. The court ruled that the claim had been timely filed and that:
"* * * [I]t is therefore ordered and adjudged that the claimant is entitled to participate in the State Insurance Fund providingher silicosis occupational disease death claim is otherwiseallowable." (Emphasis added.)
Appellant presents three assignments of error:
"1. The trial court committed prejudicial error by not granting defendant-appellant's motion to dismiss.
"2. The trial court committed prejudicial error by granting plaintiff-appellee the right to participate in the state insurance fund absent proof of a direct casual [sic] relationship between the alleged disease and the resulting disability.
"3. Where the Industrial Commission denies the plaintiff-appellee's claim solely on the basis of a statute of limitations, the only issue before the trial court is the validity of the Industrial Commission's ruling and not the factual issues regarding compensability of an alleged occupational disease."
Appellant's first assignment of error is well-taken.
Repeal of the six-month filing requirement in R.C.
"(A) The reenactment, amendment, or repeal of a statute does not, except as provided in division (B) of this section:
"(1) Affect the prior operation of the statute or any prior action taken thereunder;
"* * *
"(3) Affect any violation thereof or penalty, forfeiture, or punishment incurred in respect thereto, prior to the amendment or repeal; *216
"* * *
"(B) If the penalty, forfeiture, or punishment for any offense is reduced by a reenactment or amendment of a statute, the penalty, forfeiture, or punishment, if not already imposed, shall be imposed according to the statute as amended." (Emphasis added.)
In the instant case, at the time appellee's husband died, R.C.
Further support for this proposition can be found from two sources. First, when R.C.
"* * * When the repeal or amendment relates to the remedy, it does not affect pending actions, prosecutions, or proceedings, unless so expressed, nor does any repeal or amendment affectcauses of such action, prosecution, or proceeding, existing at the time of such amendment or repeal, * * *." (Emphasis added.)
Thus, the legislature clearly evidenced an intention to prevent retroactive application of amendments to statutes based upon distinctions between procedure, substance and remedy. SeeGregory v. Flowers (1972),
If the court finds that appellee's claim was not timely filed, appellant's second and third assignments of error are moot. If the claim was timely filed, appellant's second and third assignments of error are without merit.
Appellant's contentions that the trial court erred in awarding benefits to appellee is not demonstrated by the record. The judgment of the trial court merely stated that appellee's claim was timely filed and that she would be "entitled to participate in the State Insurance Fund providing her silicosis occupational disease death claim is otherwise allowable" (emphasis added). Clearly, the trial court did not award any benefits to appellee; and, pursuant to R.C.
The judgment of the trial court is reversed, and judgment of dismissal is entered in favor of appellant.
Judgment reversed.
COOK, P.J., concurs.
DAHLING, J., dissents. *217