Board of County Com'rs v. State Industrial Commission

1936 OK 627, 61 P.2d 730, 177 Okla. 645, 1936 Okla. LEXIS 461
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedOctober 20, 1936
DocketNo. 26687.
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 1936 OK 627 (Board of County Com'rs v. State Industrial Commission) 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
Board of County Com'rs v. State Industrial Commission, 1936 OK 627, 61 P.2d 730, 177 Okla. 645, 1936 Okla. LEXIS 461 (Okla. 1936).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

This is an original proceeding in this court brought by the county commissioners of Oklahoma county, as petitioners, to obtain the review of an order and award made by the State Industrial Commission in favor of the respondent J. A. West.

A resume of the events leading up to and culminating in the award now under consideration reveals substantially the following situation: On, April 1, 1932, the respondent was in the employ of the petitioners and engaged in a hazardous occupation as defined by the Workmen’s Compensation Act. While so engaged respondent sustained an accidental injury as the result of a wooden form falling from a bridge and striking him across the back. Medical care and attention were furnished by the petitioners. The bridge from which the timber fell striking respondent was under construction by a third party. The respondent filed an election to sue the responsible third party for damages resulting :by reason of said injury. Suit was brought for the recovery of $10,000 and later settled in compromise for the sum of $400 and the action dismissed without prejudice. This settlement was approved by the State Industrial Commission in an order under date of March 6, 1933, wherein the commission found that respondent had sustained a compensable injury under the Workmen’s Compensation Act while in the employ of the petitioners and had obtained by suit and compromise on account of said injury from the responsible third party the sum of $400, which settlement was approved and further compensation denied, and which order retained jurisdiction to reopen the cause upon showing of change of condition.

Subsequent applications of the respondent to reopen the cause on alleged change in condition were denied by the commission in orders of July 17, 1933, and February 12, 1934, respectively. Thereafter, on July 20, 1935, respondent again applied to the commission to reopen the cause on the ground of a change in his condition for the worse. After hearings had on this last application the commission entered an order on September 9, 1935, as amended and corrected by order of September 10, 1935, wherein it was found that the respondent had suffered a change in condition for the worse, whereby he had sustained loss of earning capacity in the amount of $2 per day, which was attributable to his original injury, and awarded respondent compensation for a period of 300 weeks at $8 per week. This order and award- we are now called upon to review.

Petitioners challenge the order and award upon two grounds, which may be summarized as: (a) That the order of the commission made on March 6, 1933, was not such an award as could be reopened; (b) that if said order should be construed as an award, then the evidence fails to sustain the present award on a basis of change of condition. *646 In order to arrive at a proper understanding of the matter and to reach the correct conclusion, it is necessary to examine and analyze the order of March 6, 1933. In this order the commission made four findings of fact as follows:

“(1) That on the 1st day of April, 1932, the claimant was in the employment of the respondent and engaged in a hazardous occupation subject to and covered by the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Law and that on said date, he sustained an accidental injury, arising out of and in the course of his employment, said injury being to his back.
“(2) That at the time of said accidental injury, the claimant’s average daily wage was $2.50 per day.
“(3) That prior to this date, the claimant herein filed suit in the district court in and for Oklahoma county, Okla., against the third party, to wit: the Bybee Construction Company, and filed his election with the State Industrial Commission, showing that the claimant had elected to sue third party, to wit, the Bybee Construction Company.
“(4) That as a result of said suit, the claimant recovered the sum of $400 as a result of said accidental, injury. Said sum being an agreed judgment.”

Upon the above findings the commission then entered the following order:

“It is therefore ordered: That the settlement made in the district court in and for Oklahoma county, Okla., be and the same is hereby approved, and that the claimant’s claim for further compensation be and the same is hereby denied, but that this cause be subject to the continuing jurisdiction of the commission on a change of condition.”

In the order and award now before us the commission sought to construe and interpret the findings in the foregoing order, and in this connection made, inter alia, the following findings:

“(1) That heretofore, and on the 6th day of March, 1933, pursuant to hearings had in this cause, the commission made an order finding that the claimant was in the employment of the respondent on the 1st day of April, 1932, and that on said date sustained an accidental injury, arising out of and in the course of his employment, said injury being to his 'back, and said employment being a hazardous occupation.
“(2) The commission further found in said order that the average daily wage of the claimant at the time of said accidental injury was $2.50 per day, and that he was paid the sum of $400 asa result of said accidental injury, by bringing suit against the third party in the district court in and for Oklahoma county, Okla.
“(3) That the payments of said judgment of $4.00 was payment of compensation for temporary total and temporary partial disability that the claimant had at the time of said settlement.”

Petitioners urge that in the third finding, supra, the commission attempted to enter a nunc pro tunc finding and in so doing proceeded contrary to the rules announced by this court in Courtney v. Barnett, 65 Okla. 189, 166 P. 207; Marker, Adm’r, v. Gillam, 80 Okla. 259, 196 P. 126; Jones v. Gallagher, 64 Okla. 41, 166 P. 204; Bristow v. Carrigar, 37 Okla. 736, 132 P. 1108; In re Petition of Breeding, 75 Okla. 169, 182 P. 899. Whether this objection is relevant depends upon the construction to be given to the order of March 6, 1933, that is, whether it constituted an award, which if not vacated became final of was merely an interlocutory order or such an award as might be reopened on a change of condition and under the continuing jurisdiction of the commission. It is the contention of petitioners that the aforesaid order did not have the force and effect of an award for the reason that it did not grant the respondent any compensation; petitioners urging in this connection that the money received by the respondent from the third party cannot be considered as compensation within the meaning and provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Act, and that therefore the commission could not reopen the cause since there was nothing to increase or decrease, and in support of this position we are cited to Olentine v. Calloway, 147 Okla. 137, 295 P. 608. Whether the rules announced in the above-cited case are applicable to the record now before us depends, as we have previously stated, upon the nature of the order of March 6, 1933. As we have pointed out upon numerous occasions, the jurisdiction of the Industrial Commission over its orders varies with the type of order made and the time and manner in which a review or additional award by the commission is sought.

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Bluebook (online)
1936 OK 627, 61 P.2d 730, 177 Okla. 645, 1936 Okla. LEXIS 461, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/board-of-county-comrs-v-state-industrial-commission-okla-1936.