Hicks v. Bates

292 S.W.3d 850, 104 Ark. App. 348, 2009 Ark. App. LEXIS 460
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedFebruary 11, 2009
DocketNo. CA 08-501
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 292 S.W.3d 850 (Hicks v. Bates) 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
Hicks v. Bates, 292 S.W.3d 850, 104 Ark. App. 348, 2009 Ark. App. LEXIS 460 (Ark. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinion

COURTNEY HUDSON HENRY, Judge.

Appellants Jamie Hicks and C.H. appeal the decision of the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission (Commission) awarding dependent-death benefits to D.B., the minor son of the decedent, Jerry Hicks. For reversal, appellants argue that the Commission erred in concluding that D.B.’s claim of benefits was not barred by the statute of limitations found in Arkansas Code Annotated section 11-9-702 (Supp.2007). Appellants also argue that substantial evidence does not support the Commission’s finding that D.B. was wholly and actually dependent upon the decedent at the time of his death. We affirm the Commission.

The decedent, an employee of appellee Nucor Steel (Nucor), sustained a compen-sable injury on July 29, 2002, resulting in his death. The record reveals that he died on the premises of Nucor when the pinch point of a cold-roll welding machine crushed him. As a result, Nucor’s insurer, appellee Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance Company (Liberty), paid a total of $75,000 in dependency benefits to appellant Hicks, who is the decedent’s widow, and their minor child, appellant C.H. Appellee Death and Permanent Total Disability Trust Fund (Fund) thereafter assumed liability and made weekly payments of $425 to appellants.

Prior to his marriage to appellant Hicks, the decedent and appellee Cheryl Bates (Bates) were involved in a relationship, which ended when Bates was seven months’ pregnant. The couple never married but had one child, D.B., who was born on September 14, 1995. Based upon the testimony of Bates and the decedent’s mother, the Commission learned that the decedent saw D.B. on the date of his birth and interacted with him on a regular basis. D.B. visited the decedent at his parents’ home, at Bates’s restaurant, and at a local park. Photographs introduced into evidence depicted D.B. with the decedent’s family celebrating holidays together. The decedent made monthly child-support payments to Bates of an agreed-upon $150, an amount never actually ordered by a court. While the decedent’s child-support payments became sporadic in 1998, he paid Bates in more frequent, smaller increments until his death in 2002.

Bates married her current husband in 1996, and they resided with D.B. in Dexter, Missouri. During that time, the decedent continued his periodic visits with his son. When Bates’s husband wished to adopt D.B., the decedent would not allow it. While Bates’s husband never believed himself to be D.B.’s father, he and Bates nevertheless added his name as the father to D.B.’s birth certificate. On July 30, 2002, Bates learned of the decedent’s death, and the decedent’s mother recommended to Bates that she apply for social-security survivor’s benefits. Following the application, the Social Security Administration found D.B. to be the decedent’s natural child, and D.B. began receiving dependency benefits.

Bates became aware of D.B.’s entitlement to workers’-compensation benefits in February 2006. Immediately thereafter, Bates arranged for DNA testing, which concluded that the decedent was D.B.’s biological father. On March 10, 2006, a Missouri circuit court appointed Bates as D.B.’s legal guardian and conservator.

On May 17, 2006, Bates filed a claim for workers’-compensation dependent benefits on behalf of D.B. The administrative law judge (ALJ) conducted a hearing on December 6, 2006, and made the following findings: (1) D.B. was the son of the decedent and Bates; (2) D.B. was wholly and actually dependent upon the decedent at the time of his death, and as a result, D.B. was entitled to dependent benefits pursuant to Arkansas Code Annotated section 11-9-527 (Repl.2002); and (3) the claim was not barred under the provisions of section 11-9-702.

On December 21, 2007, the Commission entered an opinion in agreement with the ALJ’s decision that D.B. was the decedent’s minor son and that he was wholly and actually dependent upon the decedent at the time of his death. The Commission also found that D.B.’s claim was not barred by the statute of limitations. However, the Commission disagreed with the ALJ’s finding that Nucor was liable for benefits, and subsequently, the Commission entered a second opinion allocating the disbursement of benefits. Appellants now bring this appeal.

For the first point on appeal, appellants argue that the Commission erred in interpreting section 11-9-702 and finding that D.B.’s claim for dependent-death benefits was not barred by the statute of limitations. As a general rule, we recognize a two-year statute of limitations to file a workers’-compensation claim following a death. Ark.Code Ann. § 11—9—702(a)(3). However, an exception to the two-year statute of limitations exists for minors:

(2) The provisions of subsection (a) or (b) of this section shall not apply to a mental incompetent or minor so long as the person has no guardian or similar legal representative. The limitations prescribed in subsection (a) or (b) of this section shall apply to the ... minor from the date of the appointment of a guardian or similar legal representative for that person, and where no guardian or similar representative has been appointed, to a minor upon obtainment of majority.

Ark.Code Ann. § 11-9-702(0(2). In other words, in the case of a minor, the statute of limitations does not begin to run until the minor is appointed a guardian or similar legal representative or until the minor reaches majority.

Appellants contend that the exception provision is inapplicable to D.B. because he was under the care of his mother, a natural guardian, since his birth. Appellants dismiss that part of the exception permitting a minor to file a claim on his or her own behalf after age eighteen by arguing that this particular clause applies only to children “who do not have a living biological parent.” Here, it is undisputed that the decedent’s work-related death occurred on July 29, 2002; that a Missouri circuit court appointed Bates as D.B.’s guardian and conservator on March 10, 2006; and that Bates filed a claim for workers’-compensation dependent benefits on May 17, 2006. Thus, four years elapsed between the decedent’s death and the filing of D.B.’s claim. Therefore, the relevant question in this case is whether the foregoing exception for minors, found .in subsection 11 — 9—702(f)(2), applies to D.B., who lived with his natural parent who was not appointed his guardian until March 10, 2006.

This issue requires us to interpret a workers’-compensation statute. We review issues of statutory construction de novo. Weisenbach v. Kirk, 104 Ark.App. 245, 290 S.W.3d 614 (2009). The basic rule of statutory construction is to give effect to the intent of the General Assembly. Id. In determining the meaning of a statute, the first rule is to construe it just as it reads, giving the words their ordinary and usually accepted meaning in common language. Arkansas Comprehensive Health Ins. Pool v. Denton, 374 Ark. 162, 286 S.W.3d 698 (2008). We construe the statute so that no word is left void, superfluous, or insignificant, and meaning and effect are given to every word in the statute if possible. Id. When the language of a statute is plain and unambiguous and conveys a clear and definite meaning, there is no need to resort to rules of statutory construction. Mamo Transp., Inc. v. Williams, 375 Ark.

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Bluebook (online)
292 S.W.3d 850, 104 Ark. App. 348, 2009 Ark. App. LEXIS 460, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hicks-v-bates-arkctapp-2009.