State Ex Rel. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co. v. Missouri Workmen's Compensation Commission

132 S.W.2d 683, 234 Mo. App. 384, 1939 Mo. App. LEXIS 70
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 30, 1939
StatusPublished

This text of 132 S.W.2d 683 (State Ex Rel. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co. v. Missouri Workmen's Compensation Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Ex Rel. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co. v. Missouri Workmen's Compensation Commission, 132 S.W.2d 683, 234 Mo. App. 384, 1939 Mo. App. LEXIS 70 (Mo. Ct. App. 1939).

Opinion

*387 KEMP, J.

This cause was commenced in the Circuit Court of Cole County, Missouri, by the filing of a petition for a writ of certiorari directed to the Missouri Workmen’s Compensation Commission, to test the jurisdiction of that commission to commute its final award made in the case of Randall N. Hill, employee, v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation, et al., after said award had been affirmed and had become final on appeal to the Circuit Court of Howell County, and upon further appeal to the Springfield Court of Appeals. The Circuit Court of Cole County denied the writ, and from this judgment relators prosecute this appeal.

After the filing of a claim based upon injuries sustained by claimant in Howell County, Missouri, the place of his employment, a hearing was held by one member of the Workmen’s Compensation Commission, who, on January 9, 1935, entered an award in this case in favor of the defendant. Application for review to the full commission was duly filed, the matter was heard before the full commission, and the full commission, oq February 19, 1935, made a final award in favor of claimant and allowed him, for total permanent disability, certain medical aid • and the sum of twenty dollars per week for 300 weeks, and thereafter the sum of $7.50 per week for the remainder of his life. An appeal from this award was taken.to the Circuit Court of Howell County, Missouri, and there affirmed. Thereafter, an appeal was taken from the Circuit Court of Howell County to the Springfield Court of Appeals, where the judgment of the circuit court was affirmed. > '

*388 Thereafter, • on February 1, 1937, an application was made before the commission for a lump sum settlement. On February 19, 1937, a hearing on said' application was-had before the commission. At this schedule hearing,, .upon objection by . counsel for the -employer and insurer, no oral evidence was heard, but by agreement of counsel the commission’s final award and all'-papers- and findings in connection-therewith, and -also -claimant’s request for commutation'to a lump -sum settlement, were made. a part of the record. The basis ■ of the objection;- apparently, was that the commission -had no authority to make an order.- commuting the award after -the original award . had become final on appeal. On March 3, 1937,- the commission made its order -commuting -the award to a lump sum. ■ Upon -a request -for . an. appeal by the employer and insurer, the commission took the position that this was -not an .appealable order and refused to grant an appeal. 1 Following this refusal, employer and insurer filed petition for certiorari in. the Circuit -Court of Cole County, Missouri, -.as aforesaid. < ■ —

We are, at the outset, called upon to determine the question of the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court of--Cole 'County in this-matter.

Only recently we had before us, in the case of State ex rel. Federated Métals Corporation et al. v. Nelson et al., 117 S. W. (2d) .-361, the precise situation presented in the case at bar. We there held that the Workmen’s Compensation Act, by express terms, vested the jurisdiction for review of judicial acts of the Workmen’s Compensation Commission in the circuit court of the county where the 'claim arose. The claim in that case arose in the city of St. Louis. ’The commission made a temporary or partial award which was signed by two membe.rs of -the commission. Within ten days after the rendition of said award, the employer and insurer filed an application for review by the ful-1 commission, and, upon the following day, the commission advised that said., award was signed by the full commission and was not reviewable, and declined to take-any action upon the application for review. - Thereupon, the employer and insurer filed petition for writ of certiorari in the Circuit Court of Cole County.. In holding that the Circuit Court of Cole County was without jurisdiction in tfie matter, we there said:

“. ,. .. under the conditions presented in- this case, the Circuit .Court of St..Louis City is the court vested,with the jurisdiction to review the evidence offered on the issue, and the St. Louis Court of .Appeals is vested with jurisdiction to review upon appeal from- said circuit court. .
“We conclude that there is no authority under the common law, ■■ and no authority, vested by statute or judicial mandate which pro- ■ vides for a circuit court to have and exercise supervising control over • an inferior court wherein such inferior court is-exercising its judicial . functions in matters wherein the venue of the cause does not lie *389 in a county wherein said court has jurisdiction, and wheréin said circuit court has neither jurisdiction of the parties nor of the subject matter of the controversy.”

We feel that the reasoning leading to our conclusions in the Federated Metals case is adequately stated in our opinion in that case and that any elaboration thereof would serve no useful purpose.

The case at bar is ruled by our decision in State ex'rel. Federated Metals Corporation, et al.. v. Nelson, et al., supra. Adhering to pur views therein expressed, it follows that the Circuit Court' of Cole County, in the case at bar, had no supervisory control of the Workmen’s Compensation Commission in this particular matter and was without jurisdiction to issue its writ of certiorari therein.

Appellant urges that our decision in the case of State ex rel. Federated Metals Company et al. v. Nelson et al., supra, is in diréct conflict with the decision of the Supreme Court' in the case of State ex rel. Gardner et al. V. Hall, 221 S. W. 708. With this contention' we cannot agree.

In the Gardner ease, an original action in prohibition was brought in the Supreme Court to prohibit one of the judges of the circuit court of St. Louis from' proceeding in a case in that court; entitled Frank Meyer v. The Governor and other executive officers, constituting the State Board óf Equalization, the purpose of which circuit court suit was to quash the record of said Equalization Board, so far as concerns the equalization of the values óf real property' in the city of St. Louis for the purpose of taxation. The circuit court of the city of St. Louis had issued a -\yrit of certiorari 'which had been transmitted to the sheriff of Cole county for service upon the members of the Board, and was 'there sei-ved upon them. The Board, throught its counsel, appearing in .the circuit .court solely for that purpose, moved to quash the writ on the ground of a lack of jurisdiction both as to the subject matter and the persons. The motion was overruled and, upon ' the ' circuit court! continuing to exercise jurisdiction, the proceeding by prohibition was instituted in' the Supreme Court. .

In the Gardner case, it was held that while an application for a writ of certiorari is not a suit “instituted by summons”, as described in.Section 1751, Revised Statute's Missouri, 1909 (Sec. 720, R. S. Mo., 1929), providing where actions must be, brought in order to give the court jurisdiction of the person, it nevertheless comprehends all the essential elements necessary to constitute one. From this the Supreme Court says:

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Related

State Ex Rel. Gardner v. Hall
221 S.W. 708 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1920)

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Bluebook (online)
132 S.W.2d 683, 234 Mo. App. 384, 1939 Mo. App. LEXIS 70, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-brown-williamson-tobacco-co-v-missouri-workmens-moctapp-1939.