Gates v. Industrial Commission

578 P.2d 602, 118 Ariz. 521, 1978 Ariz. LEXIS 205
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedApril 25, 1978
DocketNo. 13479-PR
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 578 P.2d 602 (Gates v. Industrial Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gates v. Industrial Commission, 578 P.2d 602, 118 Ariz. 521, 1978 Ariz. LEXIS 205 (Ark. 1978).

Opinion

CAMERON, Chief Justice.

This is a petition for review of an opinion of the Court of Appeals, Division One, in two Industrial Commission matters involving different and successive industrial injuries to the same workman.

We must answer three questions:

1. Was the first injury scheduled or unscheduled?
2. Should All Star Coach v. Industrial Commission, 115 Ariz. 335, 565 P.2d 515 (1977) be applied retroactively?
3. Should the Commission have granted petitioner’s motion to consolidate for the purposes of apportionment?

The facts necessary for a determination of this matter are as follows. Petitioner, John W. Gates, was first injured on 1 May 1966 and his case closed on 18 May 1967 with an award for a scheduled permanent disability equal to 25% loss of function to the second finger of the right hand. On 13 December 1972, the Commission granted a petition to reopen the first injury on the basis of a new or previously undiscovered disability or condition. On 17 December 1975, the first injury was again closed with a scheduled 30% functional loss to the right arm.

On 25 August 1971, petitioner sustained an injury to his left arm which resulted in a scheduled disability of 5% to the left arm. This matter was closed on 4 December 1972 and became final. No further action was taken in regard to this injury.

On 3 January 1972, petitioner suffered a third injury to the ring finger of his left hand. On 10 February 1975, the third injury was closed as a scheduled injury.

Ignoring the reopening of the first injury and the scheduled award of 17 December 1975, it appears that each award was closed in the same order as the occurrence of the injuries. Petitioner, however, after the closing of the second injury and while the third injury was pending, petitioned to reopen the first injury which was granted.

Petitioner brought a timely request for hearing on the first and third injuries contending that although the third injury was properly closed as a scheduled award, the first injury should have closed as an unscheduled rather than a scheduled injury. The petitioner also asked for a consolidation of the two matters for purposes of apportionment. The motion for consolidation was denied and the petition for review before the Commission stated:

“Applicant’s contention is simply this: Either the date of happening of successive scheduled accidents, or the date of closing of cases of successive scheduled accidents, one or the other, is the determining factor in which one becomes unscheduled. The law was one way before the All Star Coach case, and another way after.
“Whichever way it is, there seems to be an apportionment situation, under the holdings of Morrison-Knudsen v. Industrial Commission, I CA-IC 1252, filed June 15, 1976 [27 Ariz.App. 1, 550 P.2d 648] * *

Although the petition to consolidate was denied, the two Petitions for Special Action-Industrial Commission were consolidated for disposition by the Court of Appeals.

SHOULD THE FIRST INJURY BE SCHEDULED OR UNSCHEDULED?

In Ronquillo v. Industrial Commission, 107 Ariz. 542, 490 P.2d 423 (1971), we held that where an employee had received a prior scheduled industrial injury, a second industrial injury which would have been scheduled is to be compensated as unscheduled (§ 23-1044 C & D) and not as a second scheduled injury under subsection B of § 23-1044. Following Ronquillo, the Court of Appeals in a split decision in All Star Coach, Inc. v. Industrial Commission, 26 Ariz.App. 3, 545 P.2d 965 (1976), held that when two successive injuries which would, standing alone, result in a scheduled [523]*523injury, the date of the closing of the claim rather than the date of the injury should be controlling. In other words, in determining which injury would be treated as unscheduled, the Court of Appeals held that a prior injury, if it is closed after the second injury, would be the unscheduled injury if the second scheduled injury was closed first. It was this opinion in All Star Coach by the Court of Appeals that petitioner referred to in his petition for review before the Commission. Roth the attorney for the petitioner and the referee agree that but for reasoning as exemplified in the Court of Appeals opinion in All Star Coach, supra, the second and third injuries would have closed as unscheduled injuries.

We disagreed with the Court of Appeals and on review of the Court of Appeals opinion stated:

“ * * * In order to preserve the language of A.R.S. § 23-1044(E) and avoid the ‘race to close’ problems which are inevitable if the Industrial Commission’s award were upheld [footnote omitted], we hold that when a subsequent scheduled industrial injury becomes stationary before a previous scheduled industrial injury, the Commission shall hold the subsequent injury open until the first injury becomes stationary. In the case before us, the hand injury award is void under the law as we declare it today. That injury should not have been closed until the previous injury became stationary and the percentage of disability determined. When both injuries are stationary, in this case and in the future, the prior injury should be closed according to A.R.S. § 23-1044(B) and the subsequent injury should be closed with an award under A.R.S. § 23-1044(E). Although this resolution will obviously delay the final award for the subsequent injury, we wish to avoid any interpretation of A.R.S. § 23-1044(E) which would do violence to the statutory mandate that such unscheduled awards be predicated on the presence of a ‘previous disability’.” 115 Ariz. at 337-38, 565 P.2d at 517-18.

In the instant case, the first injury resulted in an injury that, standing alone, was scheduled. The injury being first in time, it remains scheduled, according to our opinion in All Star Coach, supra. The award of the Industrial Commission in case No. I CA 2/W-03-59, Carrier Claim No. BD 17302, the first injury, is affirmed.

RETROACTIVITY OF ALL STAR COACH

The opinion of the Court of Appeals in this case has indicated that to apply our opinion in All Star Coach retroactively would be a violation of petitioner’s property rights. The Court of Appeals stated:

“Likewise, if we were to literally follow All Star Coach

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875 P.2d 820 (Court of Appeals of Arizona, 1993)
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588 P.2d 857 (Court of Appeals of Arizona, 1978)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
578 P.2d 602, 118 Ariz. 521, 1978 Ariz. LEXIS 205, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gates-v-industrial-commission-ariz-1978.