Fidelity & Casualty Co. v. Whitehead

152 S.E.2d 706, 114 Ga. App. 630, 1966 Ga. App. LEXIS 879
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedOctober 26, 1966
Docket42199, 42200
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 152 S.E.2d 706 (Fidelity & Casualty Co. v. Whitehead) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fidelity & Casualty Co. v. Whitehead, 152 S.E.2d 706, 114 Ga. App. 630, 1966 Ga. App. LEXIS 879 (Ga. Ct. App. 1966).

Opinion

Eberhardt, Judge.

The question has been raised in this case as to whether, under the decision in Continental Cas. Co. v. Swift & Co., 222 Ga. 80 (148 SE2d 489), Code § 114-710 [633]*633stands repealed by § 15 of the Act of 1963 (Ga. L. 1963, p. 141, et seq.) so that from the date of its adoption no appeal from the Workmen’s Compensation Board to the superior court has been available. We conclude that it does not. It has been a question of no little concern to this court. But after a careful study of the matter we have concluded that our statement of the situation in Baggett Transportation Co. v. Barnes, 108 Ga. App. 68 (132 SE2d 229) is correct.

The contention made in this case is, in effect, that the Supreme Court ruled in Swift, supra, that the unconstitutionality of the affirmative enacting part of the Act of 1937 (Ga. L. 1937, p. 528) did not render inoperative the provision for the striking (or repeal) of the old provision for subrogation without respect to the intention of the legislature as respects both the neto enactment and the repeal. In other words, the contention is that Lloyd Adams, Inc. v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 190 Ga. 633 (10 SE2d 46) held that in all cases where an enactment is held unconstitutional a repeal of an old law is not invalidated. Ascertainment of what the rulings in U. S. Cas. Co. v. Watkins, 211 Ga. 619 (88 SE2d 20) and Continental Cas. Co. v. Swift & Co., supra, mean will serve to clarify the issues involved and simplify the issue in this case. The question involved in the two above cases was the same: What did the Lloyd Adams, Inc. case hold? In our judgment the holding is necessarily to the effect that there was no subrogation under any theory of law.. The court did not discuss the question of what effect the unconstitutionality of the affirmative enactment had on the repeal of the old provision for subrogation. However, the judgment in the case necessarily meant that there was no subrogation for any reason, and that included the facts (1) that the affirmative substitute subrogation provision was unconstitutional, (2) that there was no subrogation in such cases without a statute, and, though it was not mentioned, (3) that the ruling-unconstitutional of the new provision for subrogation did not invalidate the outright repeal of the former subrogation provision. Under the almost unanimous rulings on this, question, to be stated later, the opinion necessarily meant that it was the legislature’s intention to repeal the old provision for sub[634]*634rogation—not as a part of a two-fold intention to provide a new subrogation provision, but as a deliberate and conscious intent to repeal the old provision for subrogation without respect to whether the new provision was good or bad. This is not to bring in question the correctness of the ruling in Lloyd Adams, Inc. However, it may be observed that the Lloyd Adams, Inc. decision could have been influenced by the nature of the attempted substitution and the fact that the old principle of subrogation is not such a compelling equitable or moral necessity as would render unconscionable a failure to provide it, though the matter or the effectiveness of the repeal was not discussed.

There is another impelling reason why we hold as we do here. To hold otherwise would be to impute to the Supreme Court an unthinkable intention, i.e., to disavow an almost universal and sound rule on the question involved. The rule is: “In cases in which statutes containing repealing clauses have been held to be unconstitutional, the general rule is that the clause containing the repeal is incidental to the rest of the statute, and that if the latter is invalid, the clause containing the repeal will likewise be deemed invalid, leaving the prior general law unrepealed. It must be pointed out, however, that the question in every case is whether the legislature intended that the repeal should take effect in any event—that is, whether the repeal provision is severable . . . The question whether portions of a statute which are constitutional shall be upheld while other portions are eliminated as unconstitutional involves primarily the ascertainment of the intention of the legislature. If the objectionable parts of a statute are severable from the rest in such a way that the legislature would be presumed to have enacted the valid portion without the invalid, the failure of the latter will not necessarily render the entire statute invalid, but the statute may be enforced as to those portions of it which are constitutional. If, however, the constitutional and the unconstitutional portions are so dependent on each other as to warrant the belief that the legislature intended them to take effect in their entirety, it follows that if the whole cannot be carried into effect, it will be presumed that the legislature [635]*635would not have passed the residue independently, and accordingly, the entire statute is invalid.” (Emphasis supplied.) 16 AmJur2d 413, 414, Constitutional Law, §§ 185, 186; 102 ALR 803; 66 ALR 1483. While the majority probably ruled correctly as to what the ruling in Lloyd Adams, Inc. was, the whole court in Continental Cas. Co. v. Swift & Co., supra, correctly stated what the ruling necessarily had to be, since no subrogation was said to exist. At any rate, the Supreme Court had never held that the general rule is not to be applied in a case such as we have here. We think the conclusion is demanded that the legislature intended to repeal the provision for appeals from awards of compensation to the superior court only in the event the provision for appeals directly to this court was valid.

The intention of the legislature was two-fold: the repeal of an old provision for appeal and the substitution of a new. There can be no substitute unless the entire intention is accomplished. While in the case overruled, U. S. Cas. Co. v. Watkins, 211 Ga. 619, supra, the Supreme Court corrected its ruling as to what Lloyd Adams, Inc. necessarily meant, it nevertheless stated the undeniable principle which applies to this case and others like it, in which it is obvious that all of the Justices would concur under the facts of this case.

It is utterly beyond the bounds of reason, in our opinion, to think that the legislature intended to limit relief from an award of the State Board of Workmen’s Compensation to the cumbersome method of certiorari to the superior court in the event the Act attempting to provide a direct appeal to this court was held to be unconstitutional. The legislature was attempting to make appeal simpler and easier, not more difficult and complicated. Certiorari would greatly slow down the process, impede justice, and increase the already too-heavy workloads of the board and the superior courts.

In his findings and award on the matter of whether the employee had experienced a change of condition the deputy director found, inter alia, that the employee had suffered a hernia arising out of and in the course of his employment, as evidenced by the agreement to pay compensation therefor, but that the employer had tendered a surgical correction which the [636]*636employee had refused and that the employee’s condition would have enabled him to take a surgical correction.

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152 S.E.2d 706, 114 Ga. App. 630, 1966 Ga. App. LEXIS 879, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fidelity-casualty-co-v-whitehead-gactapp-1966.