Death & Permanent Total Disability Trust Fund v. Whirlpool Corp.

837 S.W.2d 293, 39 Ark. App. 62, 1992 Ark. App. LEXIS 602
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedSeptember 30, 1992
DocketCA 91-512
StatusPublished
Cited by60 cases

This text of 837 S.W.2d 293 (Death & Permanent Total Disability Trust Fund v. Whirlpool Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Death & Permanent Total Disability Trust Fund v. Whirlpool Corp., 837 S.W.2d 293, 39 Ark. App. 62, 1992 Ark. App. LEXIS 602 (Ark. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

James R. Cooper, Judge.

The claimant in this workers’ compensation case sustained two successive permanent injuries in the employ of the appellee, Whirlpool Corporation. The claimant’s first injury took place in 1979, and resulted in payment of $5,174.26 in permanent partial disability benefits. The claimant returned to work at Whirlpool and was continuously employed there until he suffered a second compensable injury in 1985, which resulted in additional permanent anatomical impairment and a finding of permanent total disability. Subsequently, a dispute arose between the appellant Trust Fund and the employer concerning the employer’s assertion that it was entitled to take credit for the $5,174.26 paid to the claimant for permanent partial disability arising from the 1979 injury. The Commission concluded that the employer was entitled to credit for those permanent partial disability payments. From that decision, comes this appeal.

For reversal, the Trust Fund contends that the Commission erred in allowing the appellee employer credit for the permanent partial disability benefits paid for the 1979 injury. We affirm.

The Commission concluded that the employer was entitled to credit for the prior payment of permanent partial disability benefits pursuant to Ark. Stat. Ann. § 81-1313(f)(1) (Repl. 1976), which provides that:

(f) Second injury: In cases of permanent disability arising from a subsequent accident, where a permanent disability existed prior thereto:
(1) If an employee receives a permanent injury after having previously sustained another permanent injury in the employ of the same employer, for which he is receiving compensation, compensation for the subsequent injury shall be paid for the healing period and permanent disability by extending the period and not by increasing the weekly amount. When the previous and subsequent injuries received result in permanent total disability, compensation shall be payable for permanent total disability as provided in Section 10(a) [§ 81-1310] of this Act.
In determining when Fifty Thousand Dollars ($50,000) in weekly benefits has been paid for permanent total disability awarded under Section 10(a) [§ 81-1310] of this Act, the weekly benefits paid for the prior injury shall be added to the weekly benefits paid for the subsequent injury. (Emphasis supplied).

The appellant argues that Ark. Stat. Ann. § 81-1313 (f) (1) was superseded by Act 290 of 19 81, which established the Second Injury Fund. Specifically, the appellant asserts that § 81-1313 (f)(1) was superseded by the language in Act 290 providing that:

Commencing January 1, 1981, all cases of permanent disability or impairment where there has been previous disability or impairment shall be compensated as herein provided.

Ark. Stat. Ann. § 81-1313(i) (now codified at Ark. Code Ann. § 11-9-525(b)(l) (1987)). However, the Arkansas Supreme Court has held that Act 290 did not repeal Ark. Stat. Ann. § 81-1313(f)(1) either specifically or by implication. Riceland Foods, Inc. v. Second Injury Fund, 289 Ark. 528, 715 S.W.2d 432 (1986). The Court held that, because the claimant in Riceland was permanently and totally disabled, and because both injuries occurred while the claimant was in Riceland’s employment, Riceland, rather than the Second Injury Fund, was responsible for all the compensation and benefits due the claimant. Id. at 532. The Supreme Court reached this conclusion by reading the two statutes together; after so construing the statutes, the Court reconciled them by stating that:

If successive injuries in the same employment cause total and permanent disability the employer or his insurance carrier is responsible to the employee for all benefits. If the previous disability or impairment did not arise out of the employment by the same employer, the Second Injury Fund must pay the benefits.

Riceland Foods, Inc., supra, at 532.

Moreover, it is clear that Ark. Stat. Ann. § 81-1313(f)(1) was not superseded by Act 290 with respect to cases subsequent to January 1, 1981, because the claimant’s injury in the Supreme Court’s Riceland case occurred in March 1981. Second Injury Fund v. Riceland Foods, Inc., 17 Ark. App. 104,704 S.W.2d 635 (1986) (aff'd sub nom Riceland Foods, Inc. v. Second Injury Fund, supra).

Finally, it should be noted that Ark. Stat. Ann. § 81-1313(f)(1) was not included in the Arkansas Code of 1987. Section 1-2-103 of the Code repealed “[a] 11 acts, codes, and statutes, and all parts of them and all amendments to them of a general and permanent nature in effect on December 31, 1987 . . . .” Specifically excepted from this repeal, however, were statutes omitted “improperly or erroneously” from the Code. Ark. Code Ann. § 1-2-103(a)(2) (1987). In the absence of any specific repeal of Ark. Stat. Ann. § 81-1313(f)(1), and given its continued validity under the Riceland cases cited supra, we hold that Ark. Code Ann. § 81-1313(f)(1) was improperly or erroneously omitted from the Code, and therefore remains in effect pursuant to Ark. Code Ann. § 1-2-103(b) (1987).

Next, the appellant contends that § 1313(f) cannot apply because it imposes on the employer the duty to pay only $50,000 in weekly benefits; here, however, the employer has stipulated that it is liable for $75,000 in weekly benefits. The appellant argues that this stipulation by the employer is a “tacit admission” that § 81-1313(i) applies. We do not agree.

Although the appellee did concede that it was liable for $75,000 in weekly benefits, that figure was derived not from subsection (a), but instead from Ark. Code Ann. § 1 l-9-502(b) (1987), which provides that:

(b)(1) For injuries occurring on and after March 1, 1981, the first seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000) of weekly benefits for death or permanent total disability shall be paid by the employer or his insurance carrier in the manner provided in this chapter.
(2) An employee or dependent of an employee who receives a total of seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000) in weekly benefits shall be eligible to continue to draw benefits at the rates prescribed in this chapter, but all benefits in excess of seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000) shall be payable from the Death and Permanent Total Disability Trust Fund.

The question of whether the $50,000 limit on an employer’s liability provided for in § 81-1313 (f) (1) has been superseded by the $75,000 limit provided for in Ark. Code Ann. § 11-9-502 is not properly before us in this case; the employer stipulated to its liability to the extent of $75,000 before the Commission; this stipulation, as reflected in the Commission’s opinion, was strictly to the advantage of the appellant, who will not be heard to object to it for the first time on appeal. See Kelley v. Kelley, 253 Ark. 378, 486 S.W.2d 5 (1972).

Although the issue is therefore not properly before us, we nevertheless note that we believe that the Commission’s decision was correct.

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Bluebook (online)
837 S.W.2d 293, 39 Ark. App. 62, 1992 Ark. App. LEXIS 602, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/death-permanent-total-disability-trust-fund-v-whirlpool-corp-arkctapp-1992.