Ametek, Inc. v. O'Connor

771 A.2d 1072, 364 Md. 143, 2001 Md. LEXIS 201
CourtCourt of Appeals of Maryland
DecidedMay 10, 2001
Docket63, Sept. Term, 1999
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 771 A.2d 1072 (Ametek, Inc. v. O'Connor) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ametek, Inc. v. O'Connor, 771 A.2d 1072, 364 Md. 143, 2001 Md. LEXIS 201 (Md. 2001).

Opinions

BELL, Chief Judge.

In Philip Electronics North America v. Wright, 348 Md. 209, 212, 703 A.2d 150, 151 (1997), in which the worker’s compensation award to a claimant was reduced on judicial review, this Court held proper, “a credit based upon the number of weeks the employer has paid benefits,” rather than one for the total amount of money paid to the claimant before the reduction of the original award. In a footnote, we observed:

“Philip Electronics also argues at length that affirming the judgment of the Court of Special Appeals would be detrimental to claimants if the reasoning of the intermediate appellate court were applied to cases where an award is increased after the filing of a petition for judicial review, and the Commission must then determine whether to retroactively increase the award based on the number of weeks of benefits previously paid by the employer, or based on the total amount of monetary benefits previously received by the claimant. The issue is not presented in this case, and we express no opinion on that scenario.”

Id. at 215 n. 4, 703 A.2d at 153 n. 4. This case presents that issue, namely, whether, after a claimant’s workers’ compensation award is increased on judicial review, the employer and insurer are entitled to a credit for the total amount paid to the [145]*145claimant pursuant to the award or just a credit for the number of weeks the employer/insurer paid benefits. The Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County held that the employer and insurer are entitled to a credit for the total amount paid. The Court of Special Appeals affirmed. We shall hold that the proper credit is for the number of weeks the award was paid, and, so, we reverse.

I.

The respondent, Susan O’Connor, filed a claim for workers’ compensation benefits against Ametek, Inc., her employer, and Home Indemnity, its insurer (collectively the “petitioners”), pursuant to Title 9 of the Labor and Employment Article, Maryland Code (1999 Repl.Vol., 2000 Cum.Supp.), the Workers’ Compensation Act (the “Act”). After a hearing, the Workers’ Compensation Commission awarded the respondent permanent partial disability benefits for 10% loss of use of her body and ordered the petitioners to pay 50 weeks of benefits at a weekly rate of $81.00 per week. Those benefits were paid pursuant to the Commission’s order.

Dissatisfied with the award, the respondent filed a Petition for Judicial Review of the Commission’s Order in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County. There, a jury increased the respondent’s permanent partial disability to 70% loss of use of the body as a whole. On remand, the Commission determined that the respondent was entitled to permanent partial disability benefits for 467 weeks, payable at the rate of $134.00 per week, which award it ordered the petitioners to pay. Ultimately, however, persuaded by the motion for reconsideration filed by the petitioners, in which they urged their entitlement to a credit for the 50 weeks of compensation already paid, the Commission issued an order directing the petitioners to pay the respondent $134.00 per week for 417 weeks.

Again dissatisfied with the Commission’s order, once again the respondent challenged it in the Circuit Court, by seeking judicial review. Faced with cross-motions for summary judgment, the trial court granted the respondent’s and denied the petitioners’. It reasoned:

[146]*146“I do believe that the [A]ct, as indicated in the Wright versus Philips case, should be liberally construed in favor of the claimant. And I do appreciate and acknowledge the arguments of counsel with regard to comparison of the facts in Wright versus Philips as opposed to the facts here. “I do find that the claimant is being compensated at the rate of $134 per week for a period of 417 weeks and she was previously compensated 50 weeks at $81 per week. That 50-week period was adjusted by the Commission in reducing the award from 467 to 417 weeks. And I believe and find that the claimant should be compensated for the difference and would therefore award a dollar judgment of $2,650 to accomplish that purpose, 50 weeks at $53 per week the difference, for a total of $2,650 to be paid to her.”

The Court of Special Appeals agreed. Ametek, Inc. v. O’Connor, 126 Md.App. 109, 727 A.2d 437 (1999). After an extensive discussion of Philip Electronics, in which it stressed the remedial nature of the Workers’ Compensation Act, the intermediate appellate court, although noting this Court’s reliance on “[t]he “weekly credit’ approach [as being] consistent with the Act’s benefit structure,” id., at 118, 727 A.2d at 441, concluded that crediting the petitioners with the number of weeks they paid benefits to the respondent, without adjusting for the fact that each of the weekly payments under the prior order was less than the weekly payments under the present order, “would contravene the purpose of the Act, as elucidated by the Court in Philip Electronics, 348 Md. at 226, 703 A.2d [at 158], and numerous other cases,” as it would result in the respondent being underpaid by $ 2650.00. Ametek at 116, 727 A.2d at 440. Further explaining its holding, the intermediate appellate court stated:

“We have not uncovered any case suggesting that, under the circumstances attendant here, a claimant should receive less in benefit dollars than he or she is otherwise entitled to recover. Indeed, such a result would be an affront to the legislative scheme set forth in the Act. See [Montgomery County v.] Lake, 68 Md.App. at 276 [, 511 A.2d at 544-45], Instead, we glean from the above cited cases a consistent [147]*147theme: the Act is liberally construed so as to minimize hardship to the employee and his or her dependents. Consequently, absent a clear legislative directive, the approach that inures to the benefit of the employee is ordinarily favored. Thus, the appellate courts have not permitted an employer to recoup benefits erroneously paid to an employee. Rather, the cases have countenanced a claimant’s recovery of benefits in excess of an amount the claimant is actually entitled to receive. Similarly, in Philip Electronics [North America v. Wright, 348 Md. 209, 703 A.2d 150 (1997)], the court relied on the ‘weekly credit approach,’ which worked to the benefit of the employee. Because the benefits had already been paid, the monetary approach would have required the employee to repay what may have already been spent, generating a host of other problems. “To be sure, ‘workers’ compensation cases must always turn on their individual facts.’ Morris [v. Board of Educ. of Prince George’s County, 339 Md. 374, 663 A.2d 578 (1995)], 339 Md. at 384. Under the facts of this case, however, the analysis urged by appellee promotes the benevolent purposes of the Act. If we were to credit appellants for the number of weeks for which they paid benefits, the Claimant would not receive the full amount of the compensation to which she is unquestionably entitled. As between a windfall to the Employer or payment of the correct amount to the Claimant, the choice seems obvious. Requiring the Employer to pay the correct monetary amount is consistent with the purpose of the Act,- and is readily accomplished under the factual scenario of this case.

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Ametek, Inc. v. O'Connor
771 A.2d 1072 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 2001)

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Bluebook (online)
771 A.2d 1072, 364 Md. 143, 2001 Md. LEXIS 201, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ametek-inc-v-oconnor-md-2001.