Cassens Transport Co. v. Illinois Industrial Commission

844 N.E.2d 414, 218 Ill. 2d 519, 300 Ill. Dec. 416, 2006 Ill. LEXIS 317
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 17, 2006
Docket100183
StatusPublished
Cited by68 cases

This text of 844 N.E.2d 414 (Cassens Transport Co. v. Illinois Industrial Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cassens Transport Co. v. Illinois Industrial Commission, 844 N.E.2d 414, 218 Ill. 2d 519, 300 Ill. Dec. 416, 2006 Ill. LEXIS 317 (Ill. 2006).

Opinion

JUSTICE GARMAN

delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion.

Chief Justice Thomas and Justices Freeman, McMorrow, Fitzgerald, and Kilbride concurred in the judgment and opinion.

Justice Karmeier took no part in the decision.

OPINION

The Industrial Commission made an award to an injured worker, Edwin Ade, in 1993. The award required Ade’s former employer, Cassens Transport Company, to pay Ade a weekly wage differential on a continuing basis. Ten years later, Cassens sought to terminate that award on the grounds that Ade’s wage in the year 2002 matched the wage he had been earning at the time of his injury in 1988. The Commission denied this relief. The circuit court of Coles County confirmed the Commission. The appellate court vacated this decision, finding that the Commission lacked jurisdiction to review Ade’s award. 354 Ill. App. 3d 807. We granted Cassens’ petition for leave to appeal. 177 Ill. 2d R. 315.

BACKGROUND

On August 24, 1988, employee Edwin Ade injured his left hand while working for employer Cassens Transport Company. As compensation for this injury, the Illinois Industrial Commission 1 awarded Ade wage differential benefits in the amount of $203.55 per week. Although evidence of the initial proceeding is absent from the record in this appeal, the parties’ briefing indicates that the Commission made its award pursuant to section 8(d)(1) of the Workers’ Compensation Act (820 ILCS 305/ 8(d)(1) (West 2002)). This section provides that an employee who is partially incapacitated from pursuing his usual and customary line of employment shall receive a portion of the difference between his former wages and the wages he earns or is able to earn in his new employment. 820 ILCS 305/8(d)(l) (West 2002). An employee receiving an installment award under section 8(d)(1) is entitled to compensation “for the duration of his disability.” 820 ILCS 305/8(d)(l) (West 2002).

A decade after Ade’s injury, Cassens renewed its interest in Ade’s case. In the years 1999 and 2000, Cassens requested Ade’s income tax returns. Ade declined to disclose this information. Cassens then filed a motion with the Commission, requesting that it suspend Ade’s benefits based on his refusal to provide current wage information. The Commission denied this motion. While Cassens’ appeal to the circuit court was pending, the company served a subpoena on Ade’s current employer and obtained 11 years of information about Ade’s wages. The wage information revealed that in the year 2002, 14 years after he was injured as a Cassens employee, Ade began to earn a wage that exceeded the wage Cassens paid him at the time of his injury.

Cassens terminated the appeal of its original motion to suspend Ade’s benefits. It filed a new motion to suspend benefits, arguing that the wage discrepancy which gave rise to Ade’s award under section 8(d)(1) no longer existed. The Commission again denied Cassens’ motion. The Commission relied on an appellate court case, Petrie v. Industrial Comm’n, 160 Ill. App. 3d 165 (1987), to determine that the section 8(d)(1) phrase “for the duration of his disability” refers to the duration of the employee’s physical or mental disability, not the duration of an economic loss. Thus, the alleged change in Ade’s earnings was irrelevant.

The circuit court of Coles County denied Cassens’ motion to overturn the decision of the Commission, echoing the Commission’s rationale. On appeal, the appellate court vacated the decision of the Commission and dismissed Cassens’ motion to suspend benefits, finding that the Act did not give the Commission or the court jurisdiction to entertain the motion. 354 Ill. App. 3d at 811. The appellate court relied on section 19(h) of the Act, which requires requests for review based on a change in disability to be filed within 30 months of the date of an award. 354 Ill. App. 3d at 810, citing 820 ILCS 305/ 19(h) (West 2002). The court determined that the “duration” language in section 8(d)(1) of the Act did not give the Commission jurisdiction to reopen or modify an award after the 30-month period of section 19(h). 354 Ill. App. 3d at 811.

However, before dismissing the appeal, the court addressed Cassens’ argument that the definition of “disability” in section 8(d)(1) includes economic loss. The court noted that while Petrie addressed the definition of “disability” in section 19(h) of the Act (820 ILCS 305/ 19(h) (West 2002)), it did so by examining the use of language throughout the Act. 354 Ill. App. 3d at 809. The Petrie court determined that “disability” means “physical disability” because the Act consistently uses other terms when referring to economic status. 354 Ill. App. 3d at 809, citing Petrie, 160 Ill. App. 3d at 171-72. Thus, the section 8(d)(1) language addressing the duration of a disability refers to the duration of a physical disability. 354 Ill. App. 3d at 809. In a special concurrence, one justice noted that this discussion of the merits was dictum. 354 Ill. App. 3d at 811 (Holdridge, J., specially concurring). The special concurrence also noted that the court’s holding on jurisdiction did not prevent an employer from unilaterally terminating benefits based on a belief that the duration of a claimant’s disability had ended. 354 Ill. App. 3d at 311 (Holdridge, J., specially concurring).

The appellate court denied Cassens’ petition for rehearing, but filed a statement that the case involves a substantial question warranting consideration by this court. We granted Cassens’ petition for leave to appeal. 177 Ill. 2d R. 315.

ANALYSIS

This case requires us to interpret section 8(d)(1) of the Workers’ Compensation Act (820 ILCS 305/8(d)(l) (West 2000)). This is a matter of statutory construction, presenting a question of law that we review de novo. R.D. Masonry, Inc. v. Industrial Comm’n, 215 Ill. 2d 397, 402 (2005). In interpreting the Act, our primary goal is to ascertain and give effect to the intent of the legislature. Sylvester v. Industrial Comm’n, 197 Ill. 2d 225, 232 (2001). We determine this intent by reading the statute as a whole and considering all the relevant parts. Sylvester, 197 Ill. 2d at 232; Flynn v. Industrial Comm’n, 211 Ill. 2d 546, 555 (2004) (declining to read section 8(d)(1) in isolation). We must construe the statute so that each word, clause, and sentence is given a reasonable meaning and not rendered superfluous, avoiding an interpretation that would render any portion of the statute meaningless or void. Sylvester, 197 Ill. 2d at 232. We interpret the Act liberally to effectuate its main purpose: providing financial protection for injured workers. Flynn, 211 Ill. 2d at 556.

This appeal presents the threshold question of whether the Workers’ Compensation Commission has jurisdiction to reopen or modify a 10-year-old wage differential award.

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844 N.E.2d 414, 218 Ill. 2d 519, 300 Ill. Dec. 416, 2006 Ill. LEXIS 317, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cassens-transport-co-v-illinois-industrial-commission-ill-2006.