Hondo Petroleum Company v. Piearcy

1962 OK 216, 376 P.2d 1012, 1962 Okla. LEXIS 514
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedOctober 9, 1962
Docket39617
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 1962 OK 216 (Hondo Petroleum Company v. Piearcy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hondo Petroleum Company v. Piearcy, 1962 OK 216, 376 P.2d 1012, 1962 Okla. LEXIS 514 (Okla. 1962).

Opinion

DAVISON, Justice.

Under review in this proceeding is the trial tribunal’s order allowing claimant con *1013 tinuing temporary benefits upon recurrence of his healing period.

Following an accidental injury to his back on September 22, 1958, claimant remained totally incapacitated for labor and drew temporary benefits until November 9, 1959. Compensation for his residual impairments, determined on January 15, 1960, at 20 per centum permanent (partial) disability, or 100 weeks, was ordered to commence on November 9, 1959 — the point of time when the healing period had ended. Under the method of payment fixed in the award, 10 weeks of compensation, having accrued to date of the adjudication, was payable in a lump sum and the remainder in weekly installments. Without an objection from the employer, the entire balance due under this award was commuted on March 3, 1960, to a lump sum and paid in full. On December 29, 1960, claimant applied for further medical care and increased benefits necessitated by an intervening change in his physical condition. The proceeding so initiated culminated in the order under review which finds in its pertinent part that: (a) on September 3, 1960, claimant’s condition underwent a change from permanent (partial) to temporary total disability; and (b) claimant is in need of continuing treatment. Employer was directed to furnish medical care and to pay continuing compensation for temporary total disability from September 3, 1960, until cessation of the recurrent healing period, but not to exceed 300 weeks under both past and present orders.

It is not disputed that in the absence of commutation the weekly installments ac-cruable under the prior award (for permanent disability) would have run until September 6, 1961. Employer asserts the order under review is erroneous and unauthorized by law because it grants claimant temporary benefits from September 3, 1960, which date is within the period during which “a previous permanent partial award was running.”

Employer’s contention implicitly poses four basic questions for our consideration: (a) may the trial tribunal allow additional temporary benefits when recurrence of the healing period arises after adjudication of permanent partial disability? (b) may the trial tribunal entertain an application for such additional benefits in advance of the accrual or maturity of all periodical payments directed to be made under a prior award for permanent partial disability ? and, if so, (c) may the trial tribunal allow temporary benefits, on recurrence of the healing period, to commence before the last or final periodical installment fixed in the original award has accrued? and (d) what effect, if any, does a commutation of the prior permanent partial award have upon claimant’s right to secure additional benefits for recurrent temporary disability?

The law stands firmly settled that an injured workman is entitled to compensation for temporary incapacity in addition to an award for permanent partial disability, and this rule applies with equal force and effect whether the injury is specific or unscheduled. Simpson Fell Oil Co. v. Tucker, 158 Okl. 45, 12 P.2d 529. The only statutory limitations are that the aggregate benefits granted for a single injury may not exceed 500 weeks and the allowance for both temporary total and temporary partial disability is restricted to 300 weeks. 85 O.S.1961 § 22, subdivisions 1, 2 and 4; Brooks & Dahlgren v. Pettigrew, 195 Okl. 550, 159 P.2d 743; Hamilton & Hartman v. Badgett, 164 Okl. 31, 22 P.2d 350; Orth Kleifeker & Wallace v. Scott, 173 Okl. 448, 49 P.2d 112; Commercial Casualty Insurance Co. v. Brock, 176 Okl. 348, 55 P.2d 788.

The healing period following an injury need not run in uninterrupted succession. It may arise at intermittent intervals. Recurrence of temporary incapacity either before or after a determination of permanent partial disability is made constitutes a change of condition within the contemplation and purview of 85 O.S.1961 § 28, and affords a proper basis for an order allowing additional compensation. Capitol Well Servicing Company v. Levescy, Okl., 371 P.2d 905, 908; Kleener Coal Company v. Hamilton, Okl., 363 P.2d 373, 376; Oklahoma City Tent and Awning Company v. *1014 Malson, Okl., 362 P.2d 971, 973; Young v. Daugherty, 203 Okl. 598, 224 P.2d 962.

The jurisdiction of the State Industrial Court “to enlarge or diminish” its former awards on change of condition, as provided in 85 O.S.1961 § 28, may properly be'invoked and exercised before the last or final periodical installment under a prior accumulative award has accrued and fallen due. Kadane Const. Co. v. Lee, 176 Okl. 356, 55 P.2d 1031; Kerr, Inc. v. Smith, Okl., 359 P.2d 330, 336.

It therefore follows that on recurrence of the healing period after claimant’s disability has reached a state of permanency, the trial tribunal is authorized to allow additional benefits for temporary disability and may entertain an application therefor before the compensatory period fixed in the prior permanent partial award has expired.

The next question to be considered is the manner in which payments of temporary benefits should be directed when the' recurrent healing interval commences during the compensatory period fixed in the prior accumulative award for permanent disability. Although theoretically speaking periods of temporary and permanent disability may coincide or overlap, payments of temporary and permanent compensation cannot be scheduled in such a manner as to make them accrue or mature concurrently. Hamilton v. Badgett, supra; Kleener Coal Company v. Hamilton, supra. Compensation for temporary disability must run from period to period, or week to week, and be limited to the actual time of healing or treatment beyond which it may not extend. Reinhart & Donovan v. Roberts, 157 Okl. 102, 11 P.2d 125; Kleener Coal Company v. Hamilton, supra; Pruitt v. Mid-Continent Pipe Line Company, Okl., 361 P.2d 494, 497. Consistent with this rule, when recurrence of claimant’s healing period is found to have begun while a portion of the prior accumulative award (for permanent partial disability) remained unaccrued, the trial tribunal, on allowing claimant additional benefits for the intervening temporary incapacity, must order all unpaid compensation accruable under the prior award to be suspended or deferred during the continuance of the recurrent healing period and until its termination. Capitol Well Servicing Company v. Levescy, supra, p. 908; see also Kleener Coal Company v. Hamilton, supra, p. 378.

In the present cause the prior accumulative award of January 15, 1960, was fully commuted to a lump sum on March 3, 1960. As reflected by the trial tribunal’s finding in the order under review, claimant’s condition underwent a change from permanent (partial) to temporary total disability on September 3, 1960. It is therefore clear that claimant’s recurrent healing interval commenced after the trial tribunal had accelerated the maturity of all periodical installments fixed in the award of January 15, 1960. When the present order was entered on December 29, 1960, the entire obligation under the prior award had been satisfied and the compensation period fixed therein at an end.

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Bluebook (online)
1962 OK 216, 376 P.2d 1012, 1962 Okla. LEXIS 514, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hondo-petroleum-company-v-piearcy-okla-1962.