State Ex Rel. Ammons v. Breckinridge

1968 OK 93, 442 P.2d 506, 1968 Okla. LEXIS 401
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJune 18, 1968
Docket42735
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 1968 OK 93 (State Ex Rel. Ammons v. Breckinridge) 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
State Ex Rel. Ammons v. Breckinridge, 1968 OK 93, 442 P.2d 506, 1968 Okla. LEXIS 401 (Okla. 1968).

Opinion

LAVENDER, Justice.

This is an original proceeding in this court in which the petitioner, who was awarded compensation under the Workmen’s Compensation laws for temporary total disability and for permanent partial disability, seeks a writ of prohibition commanding the respondent herein, as Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Tulsa County, to desist and refrain from any further proceedings in an action in that court in which the employer’s insurance carrier seeks to recover amounts allegedly paid by it to the petitioner in excess of the amount awarded as compensation for temporary total disability.

The petitioner was injured on June 11, 1965, and thereafter, filed a claim in the State Industrial Court for compensation under the Workmen’s Compensation laws. On December 20, 1965, the employer and insurance carrier filed notice in that court that they had stopped making payments for compensation for temporary total disability as of December 8, 1965, because they had learned that the petitioner was no longer totally disabled.

On January 20, 1966, the petitioner’s claim was heard before one of the judges of the State Industrial Court, as trial judge, who entered an order thereon on March 30, 1966, finding that the petitioner sustained a compensable injury on June 11, 1965; that his rate of compensation would be $37.50 per week; that he was totally disabled for 17 weeks, from June 11, 1965, until October 10, 1965; that his total disability ended on October 10, 1965; that he was entitled to compensation for temporary total disability for 17 weeks at $37.50 per week (a total of $637.50), and that all of that compensation had been paid by the employer or the insurance carrier; and that the petitioner had sustained certain permanent partial disabilities and was entitled to compensation for such permanent partial disabilities for a total of 151.25 weeks at $37.50 per week, or a total of $5,671.87 for permanent disabilities, 24.5 weeks or $918.75 of which had theretofore accrued. The trial judge ordered the employer or its insurance carrier to pay the $918.75 accrued amount for permanent partial disabilities to the petitioner immediately and to pay the balance of the award at the rate of $37.50 per week until the full amount thereof (less tax and attorney fee allowed in the order) be paid. On appeal therefrom, the State Industrial Court, sitting en banc, affirmed that order on May 3, 1966, and no appeal was taken therefrom.

As of May 24, 1966, the insurance carrier suspended the weekly payments on compensation for permanent partial disability because, prior to the original order of March 30, 1966, it had paid the petitioner $312.50 for 8I/3 weeks more compensation for temporary total disability than the State Industrial Court determined he was entitled to receive as compensation for temporary total disability.

About June 3, 1966, the petitioner filed in the State Industrial Court a motion alleging default in payments for more than ten days, and asking that court to find the employer and the insurance carrier to be in default and to order that all unpaid portions of the award, including future periodical installments, be accelerated, commuted to a lump sum, and paid to the petitioner. Then on June 17, 1966, the employer and the insurance carrier filed a motion in that court, alleging the carrier’s overpayment of compensation for permanent total disability for the period from October 10, 1965, to December 8, 1965, in the amount of $312.50, and asking that court to enter an order giving them credit, on the compensation for permanent partial disability, in the amount of such overpayment.

Both of these motions were heard on July 6, 1966, by one of the judges of that *509 court, as trial judge, and on July 14, 1966, the trial judge entered an order denying the motion of the employer and insurance carrier, on the ground that the award had become final prior to the filing of their motion for credit and the court was without jurisdiction to modify it by increasing or decreasing the amount thereof. In that order, the trial judge found that the employer and insurance carrier had, on or about May 24, 1966, and without just cause, become in default in the payments on the award and had remained in default for more than ten days, and based on such finding, sustained the petitioner’s motion and ordered that the employer and/or insurance carrier pay the award to the petitioner in a lump sum. No appeal was taken from that order within the time allowed therefor by law, and like the orders of March 30, 1966, and May 3, 1966, it has become final.

On August 29, 1967, the insurance carrier commenced the court of common pleas action involved herein, alleging the order of March 30, 1966, and its overpayment of $312.50 on the compensation awarded therein for temporary total disability, and praying for judgment against the petitioner herein for $312.50 plus interest thereon and the costs of the action.

The petitioner filed a special appearance and plea to the jurisdiction of that court, contending in his supporting brief that the State Industrial Court has exclusive, original jurisdiction to determine the liability of employers and their insurance carriers under the Workmen’s Compensation laws, and that the Supreme Court is vested with exclusive jurisdiction to review awards and decisions of the State Industrial Court made under the Workmen’s Compensation laws and to reverse, vacate or modify the same. When that plea was denied by the respondent judge, the petitioner asked this court to assume original jurisdiction and to prohibit any further proceedings in that action because of lack of jurisdiction.

Except when the Workmen’s Compensation laws of this state authorize, or provide for, the determination of particular matters arising under those laws, by some other court or courts, the State Industrial Court (formerly the State Industrial Commission) has the exclusive, original jurisdiction to determine claims for compensation provided by those laws, the liability of employers and insurance carriers under those laws, and any rights asserted under those laws. See: Commercial Casualty Ins. Co. v. E. B. Cooke Service Station et al. (1933), 165 Okl. 36, 24 P.2d 1007; Southern Surety Company of New York et al. v. Maney et al. (1941), 190 Okl. 129, 121 P.2d 295; Cavender v. Wofford Drilling Co. et al. (1942), 190 Okl. 291, 123 P.2d 261; Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co. v. Tri-State Casualty Ins. Co. (1951), 205 Okl. 117, 235 P.2d 703. And the Supreme Court is vested with the exclusive jurisdiction to reverse, vacate, or modify awards and decisions of the State Industrial Court made under those laws, (85 O.S.1961, § 29; Southern Surety Company of New York et al. v. Maney et al., supra). This, of course, means that other tribunals, such as the Court of Common Pleas of Tulsa County, are without jurisdiction to make any such determinations, originally, or to reverse, vacate, or modify awards or decisions of the State Industrial Court, in those instances.

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Bluebook (online)
1968 OK 93, 442 P.2d 506, 1968 Okla. LEXIS 401, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-ammons-v-breckinridge-okla-1968.