Atlas Wiring Co. v. Dorchester

1934 OK 66, 32 P.2d 913, 168 Okla. 337, 1934 Okla. LEXIS 172
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedFebruary 13, 1934
Docket24936
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 1934 OK 66 (Atlas Wiring Co. v. Dorchester) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Atlas Wiring Co. v. Dorchester, 1934 OK 66, 32 P.2d 913, 168 Okla. 337, 1934 Okla. LEXIS 172 (Okla. 1934).

Opinion

SWINDALL, J.

This is an original proceeding to review an award of the State Industrial Commission entered on July 14, *338 1933, against the petitioners, Atlas Wiring Company and W. P. Pitcoek, in favor of the respondent, Sam Dorchester.

The facts as stated in the brief of the-petitioner are admitted by the respondent to be substantially correct. In petitioners’ brief they are stated as follows:

“On August 4, 1932, the petitioner W. P. Pitcoek, an individual doing business as Atlas Wiring Company, employed the respondent, Sam Dorchester, to work as a lineman for said petitioner in the construction of a certain electric power' line near Weleetka, Okla. On said date, the first day respondent had worked for your petitioner, respondent accidentally fell from a telephone pole upon which he was working, and sustained an injury to his left foot. It is admitted that, at said time, the respondent, Dorchester, was engaged in a hazardous occupation subject to the terms and provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Law of the state of Oklahoma.
“Subsequent to the date of respondent’s said injury, respondent, Dorchester, in regular manner filed an application for compensation before the State Industrial Commission of the state of Oklahoma. On July 14, 1933, the State Industrial Commission rendered its award, under which it found that respondent, Dorchester, had sustained a 25 per cent, permanent partial disability to his left foot by reason of said injury, for which he was awarded 37weeks’ compensation at the rate of $17.31 per week. Said award found that respondent, Dorchester,had been paid in full for the temporary total disability occasioned by said injury, said payment representing 22'weeks and five days’ compensation at the rate of $17.31 per week, representing a total payment of $382.-82. and, further, that said Dorchester had been paid $17.31 on his permanent partial disability, leaving the sum of $631.80, to which said respondent was still entitled, and which these petitioners were ordered to pay.
“.By stipulation it was admitted by the parties in this case, while it was pending-before the Industrial Commission, and before said award had been made, in substance, that there was in full .force and effect at the time of the injury of respondent herein, a certain policy of insurance issued -by the Public Indemnity Company, a corporation, in the manner and form required by the Workmen’s Compensation Laws of the state of Oklahoma. Under the terms of said policy, the Public" Indemnity Company was required to make any payments of compensation required by law for injuries sustained in the course of employment by any employee of the petitioner W. P. Pit-cock, when such employee was engaged in a hazardous occupation; and under such policy said Public Indemnity Company was required to pay respondent, Dorchester, any award of compensation which might have been made -by respondent State Industrial Commission to respondent Dorchester. Such policy of insurance had been secured by petitioner W. P. Pi-tcock prior to August 4, 1932, as required by the Workmen’s Compensation Laws of this state.
“Said Public Indemnity Company, a corporation, x>aid compensation to the respondent, Sam Dorchester, from the date of said injury, less the five (5) day waiting period, to and including January 9, 1932, at the rate of $17.31 per week, or a total of $382.82, representing compensation for 22 weeks and five (5) days, and also paid to said respondent, Dorchester, the additional sum of $17.31 to apply on any permanent partial disability which said Dorchester might be adjudged to have. Subsequently, on January 16, 1983, said Public Indemnity Company, a corporation, ceased paying compensation to respondent, Dorchester, on account of its financial inability to make further payments to him, and on April 19, 1933, the said Public Indemnity Company was adjudicated an insolvent corporation by the Court of Chancery of the state of Delaware, in and for Newcastle county, and has since the payment of the total sum of $398.13, failed, refused, and neglected to pay any further compensation to respondent, Dorchester.”

It is the contention of the petitioners that there is no liability upon the part' of either of the petitioners to respondent, Sam Dorchester, for the payment of compensation because compensation insurance had been procured in accordance with the Workmen’s Compensation Law of this state and was in full force and effect at the time of the injury for which the award complained of was made. By reason of having provided the payment of compensation to respondent, Sam Dorchester, as required by law, petitioners had done all that was required of them by law and should not and could not be compelled to both provide the payment of compensation and then to pay same.

It is the contention of the respondents that when the insurance carrier became insolvent, it was the duty of the employer to pay compensation to the injured employee in accordance with the award of the State Industrial Commission.

The question here for consideration does not appear to have been directly raised or passed upon by this court. However, it appears- that the identical question was before the Supreme Court of Utah in the case of American Fuel Company of Utah, Plaintiff in Certiorari, v. Industrial Commission of Utah et al., 187 P. 633, 8 A. L. R. 1342, in which case the Utah court stated the facts as follows :

*339 ‘ Plaintiff, a corporation under the laws of Utah, procured the issuance by this court of a writ of certiorari directed to defendants. In its petition plaintiff, inter alia, alleges that on April 21, 1919, Theras Lappas filed an application with the Industrial Commission praying for compensation for personal injuries suffered by accident arising out of. and in the course of the employment of said applicant by the American Duel Company, the plaintiff; that on the 26th of September, 1919, a formal hearing was had before the Industrial Commission, when the plaintiff appeared and presented evidence showing that it had complied with the requirements of sec. 3114, Comp.

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Bluebook (online)
1934 OK 66, 32 P.2d 913, 168 Okla. 337, 1934 Okla. LEXIS 172, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/atlas-wiring-co-v-dorchester-okla-1934.