Payne v. Keller

247 N.E.2d 311, 18 Ohio App. 2d 66, 47 Ohio Op. 2d 89, 1969 Ohio App. LEXIS 598
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 25, 1969
Docket9207
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 247 N.E.2d 311 (Payne v. Keller) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Payne v. Keller, 247 N.E.2d 311, 18 Ohio App. 2d 66, 47 Ohio Op. 2d 89, 1969 Ohio App. LEXIS 598 (Ohio Ct. App. 1969).

Opinion

Troop, J.

James L. Payne, a claimant before the Bureau of Workmen’s Compensation, filed a petition in the Court of Comm on Pleas of Franklin County, by way of appeal from an order of the Industrial Commission, dated April 12, 1967. The prayer of the petition was for the right to participate in the State Insurance Fund. Issues were drawn by the petition and answer, containing some admissions and a general denial. A jury was impanelled, trial had, and at the close of the evidence the court *67 sustained a motion for a directed verdict favorable to defendants. The judgment, from which this appeal is taken on questions of “law and fact,” was filed May 28, 1968. This appeal is properly one on questions of law and will be so treated.

The focal point of plaintiff-appellant’s appeal is the holding of the trial court that the plaintiff-claimant had not within two years after October 5, 1959, made a written notice to the Industrial Commission, or the bureau, that indicated injury to a specific part of his body as required by Section 4123.84, Eevised Code. (Entry, May 28, 1968.) Appellant notes two assignments of error. Attention is directed to the second assignment as the more significant of the two. Counsel urge that the court erred in applying the section as amended effective December 11, 1967. To have used the amended section, counsel say, was a violation of the constitutional prohibition against retroactive laws.

The complete file covering Claim No. 2211522 was not before the Common Pleas Court, nor is it before this court, but pleadings and transcript of evidence supply some chronological high spots necessary to this review:

October 5, 1959 — Claimant, taxi driver, injured in an automobile accident.

November 23, 1959 — Claim for compensation for the injuries suffered filed with the bureau (No. 2211522), which claim was allowed and is presently open.

March 21, 1963 — Claimant filed a C-92 for determination of permanent partial disability “and modification of award.”

April 12, 1967 — Industrial Commission decision filed, following other necessary procedural steps, denying the C-92 application and holding that the disability recited therein did not result from the injury (10-5-59) for which existing claim was allowed.

Section 4123.84, Eevised Code, is important to this review. The applicable part of the section as it read prior to amendment effective December 11, 1967, is as follows:

“(A) In all cases of injury or death, claims for com *68 pensation or benefits shall be forever barred unless, within two years after the injury or death:
“ (1) Written application has been made to the industrial commission or the bureau of workmen’s compensation, or
("* * * )}

Subsection (A), as amended December 11, 1967 (132 Ohio Laws 1432), reads as follows:

“ (A) In all cases of injury or death, claims for compensation or benefits for the specific part or parts of the body injured shall be forever barred unless, within two years after the injury or death:
“(1) Written notice of the specific part or parts of the body claimed to have been injured has been made to the industrial commission or the bureau of workmen’s compensation, or
a* * * »>

James L. Payne filed his petition, as on appeal, in the Common Pleas Court on May 11, 1967. It was, therefore, pending before the court on December 11, 1967, the day upon which the amendment to Section 4123.84, Revised Code, became effective.

The argument of counsel for the appellant, Payne, reduced to its simplest terms, is that Section 4123.84, Revised Code, as amended, is unconstitutional as to Payne, but,' if it is found to be constitutional, Payne satisfied its requirement of notice. This review is concerned with the question of the constitutionality of the amended section as to the claimant. If appellant is correct, that the amended section is not applicable to him but that he is governed by the language of the section before amendment, then, as appellant argues, the rule announced in Kittle v. Keller, Admr. (1967), 9 Ohio St. 2d 177, is controlling. In Kittle, the court held that Section 4123.52, Revised Code, overcomes the two-year limitation found in Section 4123.84, Revised Code.

The well-established basic rule as to the operation of Section 28, Article II of the Ohio Constitution, concerning retroactive laws is that the section “has application to laws affecting substantive rights, and has no reference to *69 laws of a remedial nature providing rules of practice, courses of procedure or methods of review.” See paragraph one of the syllabus of Kilbreath v. Rudy (1968), 16 Ohio St. 2d 70, and State, ex rel. Eoldridge, v. Indus. Comm. (1967), 11 Ohio St. 2d 175.

The Common Pleas Court did not determine the validity of the decision of the commission that the disabilities claimed by appellant, Payne, did not result from the original injury upon which his original claim, filed November 23, 1959, was predicated. The application for modification, filed March 23, 1963, made such a claim, asserting a subsequently developing disability directly caused by the injury sustained in the original accident but not described in the claim as originally filed. Claimant’s application for modification, filed March 23, 1963, was a pending application at the time the amendment to Section 4123.84 (A) (1), Revised Code, became effective on December 11, 1967. The Common Pleas Court directed a verdict for the defendants, not on the merits, but on the narrow ground that Payne had not made written notice, as to an injury to a specific part of his body, within two years from October 5, 1959, as required by the statute amended effective December 11, 1967.

This is a case in which the commission has authority to consider new evidence of further disability resulting from the claimant’s original injury within the statutory period of ten years as provided in Section 4123.52, Revised Code. The rule is stated directly in paragraph two of the syllabus of State, ex rel. S. S. Kresge Co., v. Industrial Commission (1952), 157 Ohio St. 62. Refinements concerning authority to correct errors and as to review without new or changed conditions are covered in State, ex rel. New Idea, Inc., v. Industrial Commission (1945), 145 Ohio St. 209, and State v. Ohio Stove Co. (1950), 154 Ohio St. 27. Judge Fess, in Laas v. Young, Admr. (1962), 116 Ohio App. 137, writes a summary respecting the rule as it was applied in a number of cases, with special emphasis upon Miller v. Spicer Mfg. Co. (1953), 159 Ohio St. 571. The court’s conclusion in Laas was that a claimant could not reasonably be expected to include in his original claim *70

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Bluebook (online)
247 N.E.2d 311, 18 Ohio App. 2d 66, 47 Ohio Op. 2d 89, 1969 Ohio App. LEXIS 598, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/payne-v-keller-ohioctapp-1969.