Frazier v. Department of Labor & Industries

101 Wash. App. 411
CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedJuly 7, 2000
DocketNo. 24000-9-II
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 101 Wash. App. 411 (Frazier v. Department of Labor & Industries) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Frazier v. Department of Labor & Industries, 101 Wash. App. 411 (Wash. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

Seinfeld, J.

Aubry Frazier claims that the Department of Labor and Industries (Department) improperly reduced his disability benefits by the amount of social security retirement benefits that he had been receiving. He argues that because he received a lump sum disability payment rather than monthly benefits, he was not a person “receiving compensation” as RCW 51.32.225 uses that phrase and, thus, there was no statutory authorization for the deduction. We disagree with this contention and with Frazier’s argument that the Department could not make the deduction without first adopting a rule that described the method of calculating the deduction. Finally, we conclude that the Board had the authority to find an overpayment. Thus, we affirm.

Facts

In December 1982, Frazier sustained a workplace injury for which he received state workers’ compensation benefits. In August 1988, Frazier turned 62 and began collecting federal social security retirement benefits. The Department closed Frazier’s claim in November 1988.

Frazier petitioned the Department several times to reopen his workers’ compensation claim. The Department did so in June 1993, with an effective date of August 1992. In [414]*414November 1993, the Department awarded Frazier time loss compensation (TLC) benefits for the period between August 1992 and August 1993. Later in November 1993, the Social Security Administration (SSA) informed the Department that Frazier was receiving social security retirement benefits.

In May 1994, Frazier filed a writ of mandamus to force the Department to act on his continued claims for compensation. On May 31, 1994, the Department issued an order indicating that it would pay further TLC benefits. But it also said that it would reduce the payments by $411 per month — the amount Frazier was receiving in social security retirement benefits — effective December 1993.

The next day, June 1, 1994, the Department issued a second order, which awarded Frazier TLC benefits from August 1993 to May 1994. The order provided that it would pay Frazier the full TLC rate for the period of August 1993 to November 1993, but would pay a reduced rate for the period from December 1993 to May 1994 because of the $411 monthly offset amount.

Frazier appealed to the Board, which affirmed the Department’s order in part and reversed in part. It found that the Department correctly calculated the offset amount but that it (1) had failed to give Frazier adequate notice that the amount would be deducted and, therefore, (2) it must treat the offset as an overpayment. The Board remanded the matter to the Department requiring that it

enter a further order paying the claimant’s time loss compensation in full for the period from December 1, 1993 through May 31, 1994, establishing a time loss compensation overpayment for [that period] in the amount of $2,466.00 which is to be repaid through future benefits, pay any time loss compensation benefits payable for the month of June of 1994 at the full rate without any offset, and to thereafter pay any further time loss compensation owed to the claimant for the period from July 1, 1994 forward at a reduced rate consistent with an appropriate social security offset.

Frazier appealed the Board’s order to the Kitsap County [415]*415Superior Court, which affirmed the Board’s decision. He now appeals to this court, making the following four contentions: (1) at the time of the offset, he was not “receiving compensation” as RCW 51.32.225 uses that phrase; thus, the Department was not entitled to an offset; (2) because RCW 51.32.220 requires that the recipient receive notice of an offset a month in advance, the Department is not entitled to an offset against a payment for past amounts owing; (3) because the Department failed to adopt its methodology in calculating its offset as a rule, it may not take the offset; and (4) the Board lacked authority to determine that the offset was an “overpayment” that the Department could deduct from future benefits.

I. “Receiving Compensation”

Frazier’s first argument turns on the wording of two sections of the Washington Industrial Insurance Act, Title 51 RCW. The first relevant statute, RCW 51.32.220, enacted in 1975, discusses the procedural requirements for taking an offset. It states, in pertinent part:

(1) For persons under the age of sixty-five receiving compensation for temporary or permanent total disability pursuant to the provisions of chapter 51.32 RCW, such compensation shall be reduced by an amount equal to the benefits payable under the federal old-age, survivors and disability insurance act as now or hereafter amended not to exceed the amount of the reduction established pursuant to 42 USC 424a. . . .
(2) Any reduction under subsection (1) of this section shall be effective the month following the month in which the department or self-insurer is notified by the federal social security administration that the person is receiving disability benefits under the federal old-age, survivors and disability insurance act: PROVIDED, That in the event of an overpayment of benefits the department or self-insurer may not recover more than the overpayments for the six months immediately preceding the date the department or self-insurer notifies the worker that an overpayment has occurred: PROVIDED FURTHER, That upon determining that there has been an overpayment, the department or self-insurer shall immediately notify the [416]*416person who received the overpayment that he or she shall be required to make repayment pursuant to this section and RCW 51.32.230.
(3) Recovery of any overpayment must be taken from future . . . benefits provided by this title. . . .
(4) No reduction may be made unless the worker receives notice of the reduction prior to the month in which the reduction is made.

RCW 51.32.220 (emphasis added).

Courts apply RCW 51.32.220 in conjunction with 42 U.S.C. § 424a, which Congress passed to coordinate the federal and state disability benefits that an injured worker may receive. 42 U.S.C. § 424a addresses “the problem of overlapping state and federal disability benefits.” Regnier v. Department of Labor & Indus., 110 Wn.2d 60, 62, 749 P.2d 1299 (1988).

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Bluebook (online)
101 Wash. App. 411, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/frazier-v-department-of-labor-industries-washctapp-2000.