Scott v. Industrial Commission

461 P.2d 499, 11 Ariz. App. 20, 1969 Ariz. App. LEXIS 660
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arizona
DecidedNovember 26, 1969
Docket1 CA-IC 264
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 461 P.2d 499 (Scott v. Industrial Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Scott v. Industrial Commission, 461 P.2d 499, 11 Ariz. App. 20, 1969 Ariz. App. LEXIS 660 (Ark. Ct. App. 1969).

Opinion

DONOFRIO, Presiding Judge.

This is a writ of certiorari to review the lawfulness of the findings and award of The Industrial Commission of Arizona, awarding the petitioner $476.64 as compensation for permanent facial scarring which resulted from injuries sustained in an industrially related accident.

On February 17, 1966, while driving a car within the scope of his employment as a field test salesman for Columbia Redi Mix Company, Inc., the twenty-two-year-old petitioner, Robert Scott, sustained several injuries in a head-on automobile collision. The injuries included a broken nose and facial lacerations which left some permanent scarring. Petitioner applied for and received benefits, including an award of $178.74 for facial disfigurement under A.R.S. § 23-1044, subsec. B, par. 22, whch provides:

"B. Disability shall be deemed permanent partial disability if caused by any of the following specified injuries, and compensation of fifty-five per cent of the average monthly wage of the injured employee, in addition to the compensation for temporary total disability, shall be paid for the period given in the following schedule:
“22. For permanent disfigurement about the head or face, which shall include injury to or loss of teeth, the commission may allow such sum for compensation thereof as it deems just, in accordance with the proof submitted, for a period not to exceed eighteen months.”

*22 Petitioner made timely protest to the award and petitioned for a hearing. After formal hearing, the Industrial Commission made an award of $476.64 for facial disfigurement. Writ of certiorari followed, bringing before this Court solely the question of the lawfulness of that award.

Petitioner’s argument is basically this:
1. Under the Arizona Statutes there is no method defined for establishing the amount of compensation for facial disfigurement. It is left to the discretion of the Industrial Commission and the Commission should look to the underlying theory of the workmen’s compensation law in exercising its discretion in setting a just award.
2. The underlying theory of the workmen’s compensation law is compensation for loss of earning capacity.
3. In the instant case the Commission should have considered petitioner’s age, sex and occupational history, including his parttime work as an actor prior to the injury, and the fact that after injury he turned to acting as a full-time profession. Instead, the referee applied a method of computation which is provided for neither by statute nor regulation and the Commission was acting arbitrarily and capriciously by accepting the referee’s recommendation.

The method of computation referred to is set out in the referee’s report as follows:

“In the interest of attempting to achieve some degree of uniformity in scarring decisions, this referee adopts the rule previously used by this office in similar cases as follows:
“If the scar is discernible from a distance of five (5) feet, and no further, then the claimant is entitled to fifty-five per cent of his average monthly wage for one-half month; if the scar is discernible from a distance of ten (10) feet, and no more, then the claimant should receive compensation based upon fifty-five per cent of his average monthly wage for a period of one month. Scars that are both discernible and distracting when viewed from beyond five (S) feet or ten (10) feet should be treated as ’maximal’' and rated in terms of how many times greater the scar is with respect to discernibility and distraction as compared to the ’minimal’ scale indicated above.”

The respondent Industrial Commission, on the other hand, defends the position that the statute permits the Commission to exercise its discretion in setting the award with the only limit being a maximum of an eighteen-month period, and that the appellate court must affirm the award unless there is no evidence to support the Commission’s findings, in which case the Commission would be acting arbitrarily or capriciously. Among other evidence in support of the Commission’s argument that the award is amply supported by the evidence, it quotes the testimony of Dr. Stanley S. Tanz:

“A He has a healed scar over the right, side of the distal ends of the nose, which is about an eighth of an inch in width, a half an inch in length, and then a hockey stick shape comes over for another quarter of an inch. This scar is barely visible.
“Q From what distance?
“A I would say from a distance of about two to three feet it becomes practically not noticeable, although you can see it somewhat from the right profile. It’s not really disfiguring, in my opinion. But it is noticeable in the right profile at a distance of probably five feet.
“Q Doctor, have you examined the entire head and face? I am asking you with reference to today.
“A Yes.
“Q Are there any other scars or disfigurement observable to you?
“A There is a small scar just below the left zygomatic arch about half an inch in length.
*23 “Q Can you describe that for us in layman’s terms?
“A Around the left cheek half an inch in length barely visible at a distance of three feet and I can’t discern any other scars.”

We note that A.R.S. § 23-1044, subsec. B, which is the statute dealing with scheduled injuries, provides a method of computation for the amount of compensation in every case except paragraph 22. In the scheduled cases there is- no need to prove loss of earning capacity as in the unscheduled injury cases of A.R.S. § 23-1044, subsec. C. Williams v. Industrial Commission of Arizona, 73 Ariz. 57, 237 P.2d 471 (1951). Referring to scheduled payments, Larson on compensation states:

“These payments are not dependent on actual wage loss. Evidence that claimant has been regularly employed at greater earnings than before is completely immaterial.
“This is not, however, to be interpreted as an erratic deviation from the underlying principle of compensation law— the benefits relate to loss of earning capacity and not to physical injury as such. The basic theory remains the same; the only difference is that the effect upon earning capacity is a conclusively presumed one, based on observed probabilities in many similar cases, instead of a specifically proved one, based on the individual’s actual wage-loss experience.” Larson’s Workmen’s Compensation Law, Vol. 2, Sec. 58.10, pp. 42, 43 (1952).

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Bluebook (online)
461 P.2d 499, 11 Ariz. App. 20, 1969 Ariz. App. LEXIS 660, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/scott-v-industrial-commission-arizctapp-1969.