State ex rel. Slaughter v. Industrial Commission

132 Ohio St. (N.S.) 537
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedJune 23, 1937
DocketNo. 26023
StatusPublished

This text of 132 Ohio St. (N.S.) 537 (State ex rel. Slaughter v. Industrial Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Slaughter v. Industrial Commission, 132 Ohio St. (N.S.) 537 (Ohio 1937).

Opinions

Zimmerman, J.

Relatrix maintains Section 1465-90, General Code, is applicable, and controlling of the controversy. Respondent insists such section is not applicable and that relatrix is bound by the provisions of the Public Work-Relief Compensation Act, hereinafter described.

[539]*539On November 27,1934, this court rendered a decision to the effect that a “relief worker” receiving a wage “under any appointment or contract of hire” with one of the political subdivisions of the state named in Section 1465-61, General Code, is entitled to the benefits of the Workmen’s Compensation Law, when injured in the course of his employment. Industrial Commission v. McWhorter, 129 Ohio St., 40, 193 N. E., 620, 96 A. L. R., 1150.

Following such decision, the General Assembly passed the legislation commonly known as the “Public Work-Relief Employees’ Compensation Act,” effective May 17, 1935, and embraced in Sections 3496-1 to 3496-16, inclusive, General Code. (116 Ohio Laws, 212-217.)

Section 3496-1, General Code, is devoted to definitions. Section 3496-2 states that all sections of the General Code relating to the Workmen’s Compensation Law of Ohio, as amended (Sections 1465-37 to 1465-112), shall apply to the Public Work-Relief Compensation Act, except as otherwise provided. Section 3496-15 enumerates the sections of the Workmen’s Compensation Law which shall not be applicable to the work-relief act, and includes among them Section 1465-90, “relating to the right of appeal.”

Section 3496-3 recites: “The provisions of this act shall apply to all xvork-relief employees who are injured and to the dependents of such as are hilled, whether such injury or death occurs prior to the operative date of this act or subsequent thereto.” (Italics ours.)

Relatrix concedes, so far as she is concerned, that “the Public Work-Relief Employees’ Compensation Law provides practically the same relief [as to compensation] as is provided under the Workmen’s Compensation Law.”

The pertinent part of Section 1465-90, General Code [540]*540(effective in 1925), states in substance that when the Industrial Commission denies a claim on jurisdictional grounds, the claimant within a prescribed time may file an application for rehearing. Upon such rehearing, evidence for and against the allowance of the claim shall be submitted as in the trial of civil actions. If the commission then denies the claim again on jurisdictional grounds, the claimant may have an appeal to the Court of Common Pleas, where the court, or the jury under instructions of the court, if a jury is demanded, shall determine the right of the claimant to participate or to continue to participate in the State Insurance Fund, solely upon the evidence contained in the rehearing record.

On the other hand, Section 3496-13, General Code, provides that when a claim is denied on jurisdictional grounds, the claimant within a prescribed time may file an application for a finding of facts and conclusions of law, which the Industrial Commission shall prepare and send to the claimant within thirty days after the receipt of the application. Then within sixty days from the receipt of such finding of facts and conclusions of law, the claimant may file his petition in the Court of Common Pleas against the Industrial Commission, and within ten days after filing its answer the commission shall certify to such court a copy of its finding of facts and conclusions of law, whereupon the court shall determine the right of the claimant to receive compensation, death benefits, etc., upon the facts contained in such finding and no other facts.

Any right of relatrix to compensation became vested in accordance with the provisions of the applicable statutes existing at the death of her husband, for it Wfis definitely held in Industrial Commission v. Kamrath, 118 Ohio St., 1, 160 N. E., 470, that the cause of action of a dependent of a killed employee accrues at [541]*541the time the employee dies from an injury received in the course of his employment, and the statutory law in force upon such date is the measure of the right, not subject to enlargement or diminishment by the Industrial Commission, the courts or the Legislature. See 42 Ohio Jurisprudence, 597, Section 22.

But when the Industrial Commission disallows, on jurisdictional grounds, the claim of a dependent of a deceased “relief worker” whose death is alleged to be due to an accidental injury sustained in the course of his employment, may the claimant proceed under Section 1465-90, General Code, applicable when such “relief worker” died, or is the claimant governed by a later retroactive statute of specific application?

If relatrix obtained a vested right in the procedure prescribed by Section 1465-90, General Code, when her husband died, then she should prevail in this action; but if Sections 1465-90 and 3496-13, General Code, are purely remedial in character, then..she must fail, because Section 3496-13, General Code (conceding its constitutionality), is a later enactment made specifically applicable to “relief workers” and their dependents, regardless of the date of injury or death.

It was held in Industrial Commission v. Vail, 110 Ohio St., 304, 143 N. E., 716, that the filing of an application for compensation with the Industrial Commission is a proceeding within the meaning of Section 26, General Code, governed thereafter in all respects, including appeal, by the laws in force at the time of filing the original claim. State, ex rel. Podley, v. Industrial Commission, 127 Ohio St., 583, 190 N. E., 407; 42 Ohio Jurisprudence, 682, Section 94.

In explanation of the Vail and Podley decisions, it becomes necessary to examine Section 26, General Code, which gives all new laws a prospective operation unless otherwise expressly provided, and to bear in [542]*542mind that the various amendments of Section 1465-90, General Code, carried no retroactive or retrospective provisions.

While Section 28, Article II, of the Ohio Constitution, denies to the General Assembly the power to pass retroactive laws, it has often been decided such inhibition has reference only to laws which create and ■define substantive rights, and has no reference to remedial legislation. A fundamental distinction exists between a law changing accrued rights and a law which changes the remedy for the enforcement of those rights. Smith v. N. Y. Central Rd. Co., 122 Ohio St., 45, 48, 170 N. E., 637; 8 Ohio Jurisprudence, 563, Section 428; 37 Ohio Jurisprudence, 817, Section 497.

The General Assembly’s authority to pass legislation creating a state fund by compulsory contribution thereto by employers to compensate workmen and their dependents for disability or death suffered by such workmen in the course of their employment, is contained in Section 35, Article II, of the Ohio Constitution. A part of that section reads:

“Laws may be passed establishing a board * * * to collect, administer and distribute such fund, and to determine all rights of claimants thereto.” (Italics ours.)

Neither appeal nor trial by jury is mentioned in the constitutional amendment, and it was stated in Industrial Commission v. Monroe, 111 Ohio St., 812, 813, 146 N.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Branch v. Indemnity Insurance Co. of North America
144 A. 696 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 1929)
Thomas v. Pennsylvania Railroad
160 A. 793 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 1932)
Slatmeyer v. Industrial Commission
155 N.E. 484 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1926)
Industrial Commission v. McWhorter
193 N.E. 620 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1934)
Smith v. New York Central Rd.
170 N.E. 637 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1930)
Cleveland Ry. Co. v. Halliday
188 N.E. 1 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1933)
Industrial Comm. of Ohio v. Monroe
146 N.E. 213 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1924)
Industrial Commission v. Vail
143 N.E. 716 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1924)
Industrial Commission v. Kamrath
160 N.E. 470 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1928)
State, Ex Rel. v. Indus. Comm.
190 N.E. 407 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1934)
Otis Elevator Co. v. Industrial Commission
134 N.E. 19 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1922)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
132 Ohio St. (N.S.) 537, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-slaughter-v-industrial-commission-ohio-1937.