State Ex Rel. Wright v. C. C. Anderson Co.

145 P.2d 237, 65 Idaho 400, 1944 Ida. LEXIS 66
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 17, 1944
DocketNo. 7124.
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 145 P.2d 237 (State Ex Rel. Wright v. C. C. Anderson Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho 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. Wright v. C. C. Anderson Co., 145 P.2d 237, 65 Idaho 400, 1944 Ida. LEXIS 66 (Idaho 1944).

Opinion

*402 DUNLAP, J.

Two days after an industrial accident, George Schrecongost an employee of C. C. Anderson Company of Emmett, as a result thereof, died. He had no dependents, so far as is known, nor was any claim of compensation filed by anyone asserting dependency. Idaho Compensation Company, one of the appellants here, is the insurance carrier for the Anderson Company, and paid medical and hospital expenses in the sum of $219.65, and also burial expenses in the sum of $200.00.

After the lapse of more than a year the Industrial Accident Board entered an order for payment to the state, for deposit in the Industrial Administration Fund of the state, the sum of $1000.00.

Thereafter, appellants filed application for hearing, treated herein as an application for modification of an award, setting up payment of the medical, hospital and burial expenses, and alleged they were entitled to have the payments thus made, deducted from the $1000.00 ordered by the Board to be paid into said Industrial Administration Fund.

Appellants also contended before the Board, that it had no jurisdiction to determine liability of an employer and surety for payment into the fund, for the reason that the board has a direct interest in requiring such payments; it was also contended that since the state had filed no *403 claim for the $1000.00 payment, the board’s order was unfounded, and that appellants are not liable to make any payment to the state.

The board ruled against appellants on all these contentions.

While in the opening paragraph of its brief appellants state :

“The question on appeal from the Industrial Accident Board is whether or not defendants are entitled to deduct medical and burial expenses of the deceased George Schrecongost, from the $1000.00 payable to the State of Idaho,” they assign as error the holding of the board in finding it had no direct interest in the money paid to the State Treasurer for deposit in the Industrial Administration Fund. Appellants cite no authorities on the point and do not discuss it in their brief.

Neither do they assign as error or discuss the board’s ruling on the point raised before the board, to effect that the order for the $1000.00 payment was unfounded, and their non-liability therefor because of the failure of the state to file a claim. Therefore, this ruling is not before us for consideration. (Purdy v. Steel, 1 Ida. 216; N. Bennett Co. v. Twin Falls Land & Water Co., 14 Ida. 5, 93 P. 789; Glover v. Brown, 32 Ida. 426, 184 P. 649; Bicandi v. Boise Payette Lbr. Co., 55 Ida. 543, 44 P. (2d) 1103; Coeur d’Alenes Lead Co. v. Kingsbury, 56 Ida. 475, 55 P. (2d) 1307.) However, the identical question was before us and determined in State v. Potlatch Forest, Inc., 60 Ida. 797, 97 P. (2d) 394.

After hearing the application for modification (the facts being stipulated) the board made comprehensive Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, containing rather complete and informative exposition of its views of the law applicable, and based thereon, entered an award in favor of the state, directing the payment of the $1000.00 provided by paragraph 6 of sec. 43-1101, I.C.A., as amended by 1935 Regular Session Laws, chap. 147, sec. 1, p. 364, without the deductions claimed.

From this award the appeal is taken.

As appellants do not cite authority or otherwise mention, except in the assignments of error, the bare specification that the board erred in finding it had no direct interest in the money paid to the state treasury, for deposit *404 in the Industrial Administration Fund, this point is not before us for consideration. (In re: Drainage District No. 3, Ada County, 43 Ida. 803, 255 P. 411; Burton v. Bayley, 50 Ida. 707, 300 P. 359; McMillan v. Sproat, 51 Ida. 236, 4 P. (2d) 899; Louk v. Patton, 58 Ida. 334, 73 P. (2d) 949.) Especially since it would appear from the opening paragraph of appellants’ brief above quoted, that it is not one of the questions to be decided on the appeal. (See Mountain States Implement Co. v. Arave, 49 Ida. 710, 291 P. 1074.)

This brings us to the question as to whether or not appellants were entitled, to deduct from the $1000.00 payment required to be made to the state, under the provisions of our statute above cited, the amounts paid by appellants for. hospital, medical and burial expenses.

We will first direct our attention to the burial expense item.

Sec. 43-1101, I. C. A., as amended by 1935 Session Laws (Kegular Session), chap. 147, p. 364, provides in part, as follows: “If death results from the injury within two years the employer or the surety shall pay to the person entitled to compensation, or, if there are none, then to the personal representative of the deceased employee, burial expenses not to exceed $200.00, and shall also pay to or for the following persons for the following periods, a weekly compensation, etc., * * *. In case no claim for compensation is made by a dependent of deceased employee and filed with the Industrial Accident Board within one year after the death, or in case a claim is made and filed within such year and no dependency proven, the employer shall pay into the state treasury to be deposited'in the Industrial Administration Fund, the sum of $1000.00.” (Italics ours.)

The constitutionality of the provision above, with respect to the payment of the $1000.00 to the state, was determined.and upheld by this court in State v. Workmen’s Compensation Exchange, 59 Ida. 256, 81 P. (2d) 1101.

In State v. Potlatch Forest, Inc., 60 Ida. 797, 97 P. (2d) 394, a deduction for funeral expenses also for compensation paid to the employee prior to death, was likewise claimed by the employer and surety. However, the expenses of funeral was not allowed by the board, nor by this court, and while the matter of the deduction was not discussed in the opinion of this court, this court, as a matter of fact, *405 concluded such expenses were not deductible, since that portion of the order of the board, denying this deduction was not disturbed.

This conclusion would seem to accord with the statute, since it makes payment of funeral expenses, not to exceed the amount there fixed mandatory under the conditions expressed in the statute, and in addition thereto, the payment of $1000.00 to the state.

In the case of State v. Workmen’s Compensation Exchange, 59 Ida. 256, 81 P. (2d) 1101, this court took the view that the $1000.00 payment thus provided for the state, is clearly compensation as that term is employed and applied in the Workmen’s Compensation Law, and said: “Now, as we understand this statute, it was the intention of the legislature that compensation should be paid by the employer or his surety for every employee killed by accident while engaged in the course of his employment.

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

Related

Clevenger v. Potlatch Forests, Inc.
377 P.2d 794 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1963)
Gifford v. Nottingham
193 P.2d 831 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1948)
Jones v. Boise Produce & Commission Co.
177 P.2d 157 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1947)
Beard v. Lucky Friday Silver-Lead Mines
173 P.2d 76 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1946)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
145 P.2d 237, 65 Idaho 400, 1944 Ida. LEXIS 66, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-wright-v-c-c-anderson-co-idaho-1944.