178 A.D. 48 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1917
The only point presented by this appeal which we deem it necessary to decide is whether the Workmen’s Compensation Act, so called, of New Jersey, being chapter 95 of the Laws of
Paragraph 21, as amended in 1913, provides that on the application of either party on due notice to the other the compensation may be commuted by the Court of Common Pleas “at its present value when discounted at five per centum simple interest ” if it shall appear to be for the best interest of the claimant “or that it will avoid undue expense or undue hardship to either party, or that such employee or dependent has removed or is about to remove from the United States, or that the employer has sold or otherwise disposed of the greater part of his business or assets.” The statute then enjoins upon the judge of the Court of Common Pleas, upon whom only the authority to commute is conferred, the rule to be observed in passing upon such an application, viz., “that it is the intention of this act that the compensation payments are in lieu of wages, and are to be received ” by the claimant in the same manner in which wages are ordinarily paid and that, therefore, commutation “is to be allowed only when it clearly appears that some unusual circumstances warrant such a departure.” Authority is also conferred upon the judge in determining a dispute with respect to the right to compensation or the amount or commutation thereof to settle and determine the amount to be paid for legal fees and declares it to be unlawful and a contempt of court for “ any lawyer or other person ” to ask or to receive more.
The plaintiff brings this action in total disregard of all of the provisions of the statute which contemplate an endeavor on the part of the claimant to agree with the employer and a determination of any controversy with respect to the facts and to the right of the claimant to receive a gross sum by commutation by a judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Hew Jersey. The decedent elected to accept the rights and remedies given by these statutory provisions in lieu of any other right or remedy
It follows that the order should be affirmed, with ten dollars costs and disbursements.
Clarke, P. J., Sgott, Davis and Shearn, JJ., concurred.
Order affirmed, with ten dollars costs and disbursements.