Interchange Village v. Clark

363 S.E.2d 350, 185 Ga. App. 97, 1987 Ga. App. LEXIS 2431
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedNovember 25, 1987
Docket74835
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 363 S.E.2d 350 (Interchange Village v. Clark) 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
Interchange Village v. Clark, 363 S.E.2d 350, 185 Ga. App. 97, 1987 Ga. App. LEXIS 2431 (Ga. Ct. App. 1987).

Opinion

Carley, Judge.

On June 25, 1984, appellee-employee suffered an injury to her back while she was engaged in her employment with appellant-employer. As the result of this injury, appellee eventually became bedridden. Appellee apparently did not require institutional or professional medical care but, according to her physician, she was in need of non-medical, at-home attendant care on a 24-hour basis. Appellee lived alone and, in order that she be provided with the care that her doctor had indicated was needed, appellee’s daughter obtained a leave of absence from her own employment and moved into appellee’s home. Since December 1, 1984, appellee has been provided with non-medical, at-home attendant care by her daughter. Appellant-insurer initially agreed to assume financial responsibility for the costs of the services that were being provided by appellee’s daughter and to pay $200 a week for those services, calculated at a rate of $5 per hour for a 40-hour week. Pursuant to that agreement, a payment of $4,950 was made by appellant-insurer in April of 1985. When, however, no other payments were forthcoming, appellee filed this workers’ compensation claim. Appellee sought to recover, as an element of the workers’ compensation benefits to which she was entitled for her on-the-job injury, the cost of the services that had been and were being provided by her daughter.

In October of 1985, appellee’s claim came on for a hearing before an administrative law judge (ALJ). The ALJ’s award ordered appellants to pay $350 for each seven-day week of services provided to appellee by her daughter, beginning in December of 1984 and continuing until such time as appellee no longer required non-medical, at-home attendant care. Appellants appealed directly to the superior court. The superior court affirmed the ALJ’s award in part and reversed it in part. The superior court reversed the ALJ’s award insofar as it had ordered appellants to pay the cost of such services as had been provided to appellee by her daughter prior to July 1, 1985. The superior court affirmed the ALJ’s award insofar as it had ordered appellants to pay the cost of such services as had and would be provided to appellee subsequent to July 1, 1985. Appellants applied to this *98 court for permission to file a discretionary appeal from the superior court’s order. This appeal results from the grant of appellants’ application.

1. It is clear that, prior to July 1, 1985, appellee could not have filed a valid workers’ compensation claim for the cost of such non-medical, at-home attendant services as her daughter provides to her. The controlling statute then in effect, former OCGA § 34-9-200, provided as follows: “ ‘The employer shall furnish the employee, entitled to benefits under [OCGA § 34-9-1 et seq.], such medical, surgical, hospital, vocational rehabilitation, and other treatment. . . which in the judgment of the State Board of Workers’ Compensation shall be reasonably required and appear likely to effect a cure, give relief, or restore the employee to suitable employment.’ The only portion of the above-quoted [former statutory] provision that might reasonably be interpreted to include the type services rendered by [appellee’s] daughter is that which states ‘medical, surgical, hospital and other treatment.’ While it may have been necessary for [appellee] to have someone to assist her in her home during her period of recovery, it cannot be said that such services was ‘treatment’ of [appellee].” (Emphasis in original.) Insurance Co. of N. A. v. Money, 152 Ga. App. 72, 73 (262 SE2d 240) (1979). However, effective July 1, 1985, former OCGA § 34-9-200 was stricken in its entirety and existing OCGA § 34-9-200 was enacted in its stead. Subsection (a) of existing OCGA § 34-9-200 now provides as follows: “The employer shall furnish the employee entitled to benefits under [OCGA § 34-9-1 et seq.] compensation for costs of such medical, surgical, and hospital care and other treatment, items, and services which are prescribed by a licensed physician . . . which in the judgment of the State Board of Workers’ Compensation shall be reasonably required and appear likely to effect a cure, give relief, or restore the employee to suitable employment.” (Emphasis supplied.) Accordingly, the issue presented for resolution in this appeal is what effect, if any, the enactment of existing OCGA § 34-9-200 in 1985 has upon appellee’s entitlement to claim the cost of her daughter’s services as a recoverable element of workers’ compensation benefits.

Appellants first urge that existing OCGA § 34-9-200 (a) cannot be interpreted as authority for appellee’s entitlement to recover the cost of her daughter’s services. However, the interpretation of existing OCGA § 34-9-200 (a) that is advanced by appellants fails to give general consideration to former OCGA § 34-9-200 or specific consideration to the interpretation given to that former statute in Money, supra. “ ‘All statutes are presumed to be enacted by the legislature with full knowledge of the existing condition of the law and with reference to it. They are therefore to be construed in connection and in harmony with the existing law,. . . and their meaning and effect is to *99 be determined in connection, not only with the common law and the constitution, but also with reference to other statutes and the decisions of the courts.’ [Cit.]” Thornton v. Anderson, 207 Ga. 714, 718 (64 SE2d 186) (1951). “ ‘To ascertain the intention of the legislature, after examining the words of the Act itself, it is necessary to take into view every fact and circumstance that influenced its passage. We must consider what the law was before; the mischiefs against which the law did not provide; the nature of the remedy proposed; the true reason of the remedy.’ ” McGuire v. McGuire, 228 Ga. 782, 785 (187 SE2d 859) (1972). It is clear that, in its interpretation of former OCGA § 34-9-200, the opinion in Money employed the word “services” to connote the concept of just such at-home, non-medical services as were provided to appellee by her daughter. Thus, the subsequent inclusion of “services” in existing OCGA § 34-9-200

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
363 S.E.2d 350, 185 Ga. App. 97, 1987 Ga. App. LEXIS 2431, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/interchange-village-v-clark-gactapp-1987.