The Harrison Co. v. Norton

146 So. 2d 327, 244 Miss. 752, 1962 Miss. LEXIS 504
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 5, 1962
Docket42422
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 146 So. 2d 327 (The Harrison Co. v. Norton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
The Harrison Co. v. Norton, 146 So. 2d 327, 244 Miss. 752, 1962 Miss. LEXIS 504 (Mich. 1962).

Opinion

*756 McElroy, J.

This is an appeal from the Circuit Court of Monroe County, Mississippi, wherein the court affirmed an award of the Mississippi Workmen’s Compensation Commission in which the appellee was awarded compensation at the rate of $10 per week minimum and assessing a ten per cent penalty.

The appellee, Dewey M. Norton, a life-long resident of the State of Mississippi, entered into a contract in May 1956, in the State of Georgia with appellant, The Harrison Company, to work in the states of Mississippi and Alabama as a lawbook salesman. The appellee worked for the appellant until December 12, 1956, at which time he had an accident in Monroe County, Mississippi. The claimant’s testimony, that seventy-five per cent of his work was performed in Mississippi and about ninety per cent of his earnings were received from work done in Mississippi, was undisputed. He did no work in Georgia.

Immediately after his injury on December 12, 1956, the appellant insurance carrier voluntarily began to pay compensation under the Georgia Act. On April 1, 1957, the claimant was sent a Georgia form entitled “Final Compensation Settlement Receipt” and the receipt was signed by the appellee. Voluntary payments were made to the appellee totaling $480 at $30 a week under the Georgia Act, and the limit of $1,500 medical expenses was paid under the Act.

Within two years after the injury, claimant filed Forms B-5 and B-ll before the Mississippi Workmen’s Compensation Commission requesting a hearing to "determine the extent of his permanent disability. To this claim the defendant interposed a motion to dismiss for want of jurisdiction predicated on the ground that the Georgia law provided the exclusive remedy. The Commission found that claimant had a disability of five per cent of the body as a whole and sustained a five per cent *757 loss of wage-earning capacity. The Commission also allowed the $10 minimum in Mississippi to be paid at the rate of $10 per week for 450 weeks and ten per cent damages. The award of the Commission was appealed to the circuit court which affirmed the Commission’s award.

The question before the Supreme Court is whether or not the claimant is entitled to compensation under the laws of the State of Mississippi. If he is, the Georgia Act may not be interposed as a bar provided full faith and credit is given to the payments voluntarily made under the Georgia Act. It is to be remembered that the appellee is a resident of Mississippi, doing-business in Mississippi and Alabama, and not in the State of Georgia. The accident occurred in Monroe County, Mississippi, and ninety per cent of the expenses paid was for work done in the State of Mississippi.

The facts before us are that the appellee, Dewey Norton, was permanently in the State of Mississippi. The Workmen’s Compensation Commission in its award to the appellee, gave credit for all the payments voluntarily made under the Workmen’s Compensation Act of Georgia.

The exclusive feature of the Georgia Act was more or less gone into in the case of Mandle v. Kelly, 229 Miss. 327, 90 So. 2d 645, decided in 1956. It was said in that case: “The Georgia Act is silent as to the extraterritorial provisions of the workmen’s compensation or similar laws of other states, and there is no provision for exempting from its application employees and employers when the employee has been hired and is regularly employed outside of Georgia, and such employee is injured while temporarily within Georgia doing work for his employer. The exemption does not apply to the present case, and the Mississippi Workmen’s Compensation Act applies to the injury sustained by appellant while temporarily within this State doing work for his employer.”

*758 In the Mandle case, the complainant was temporarily-working in Mississippi, whereas in the case before ns, the claimant made a contract in another state to do work here in Mississippi, and is a citizen in this state and has done practically all of his work in this state. The Mandle case followed 58 Am. Jur., Workmen’s Compensation, Sec. 76; Valley Steamship Co. v. Wattawa, 244 U. S. 202, 37 S. Ct. 523, 61 L. Ed. 1084, 1085; The Minnesota Rate Cases (Simpson v. Shepard), 230 U. S. 352, 33 S. Ct. 729, 57 L. Ed. 1511. In Mandle it was said: “The sensibilities of mankind demand that anyone, whether he be a citizen or a stranger, is entitled to receive hospital and medical care when he is injured in this State, and the State must furnish such services either through the means of its public institutions or by private citizens, who are the State. Humanity also demands that indigent and helpless persons be furnished the necessities of life, and this, too, must be furnished by the State through public or private means. These duties of the State rest more on moral rather than legal grounds, but the power of the State to legislate in regard thereto rests on firm legal ground. This State has done so by assuring the payment of compensation so that an injured employee who is covered by the act may not become a public charge; and by making provisions that whoever may succor the injured employee by providing hospital and medical care shall be paid therefor. These considerations are public ones; they are substantial; and they are the legitimate concern of the State where the injury occurs.” (Emphasis supplied.) Cf. Bagnel v. Springfield, 144 F. 2d 65; Lavoie’s Case, 135 NE 2d 750. The compensation act of the State of Georgia likewise has an extra-territorial provision, Sec. 114-411 of the Georgia Code, which provides: “Accidents outside the State.—Where an accident happens while the employee is employed elsewhere than in this State, which would entitle him or his de *759 pendents to compensation if it had happened in this State, the employee or his dependents shall be entitled to compensation, if the contract of employment was made in this State, and if the employer’s place of business is in this State or if the residence of the employee is in this State: Provided, his contract of employment was not expressly for service exclusively outside of the State: # * *” (Emphasis supplied.) The Georgia Act by its very terms does not provide coverage for persons whose contract of employment is expressly for services exclusively outside the state. The testimony is that the claimant was employed for services exclusively outside the State of Georgia. His primary duties were supposed to be in the State of Mississippi. He was employed for services particularly outside of the State of Georgia and has never performed any services for the Harrison Company in the State of Georgia.

In the case of Miller v. National Chair Co., 18 Atl. 2d 847, the contract of employment was made in the State of New Jersey. The claimant was injured while working in North Carolina and the insurance carrier for the Employee’s Associated Corporation entered into voluntary agreement for the payment of compensation on a weekly basis with the subsequent approval of the North Carolina Commission, very similar to the forms signed by the claimant in this case.

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

Related

Southland Supply Co. v. Patrick ex rel. Patrick
397 So. 2d 77 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1981)
Thomas v. Washington Gas Light Co.
448 U.S. 261 (Supreme Court, 1980)
Sprayberry v. Commercial Union Insurance
232 S.E.2d 111 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1976)
Dependents of Roberts v. Holiday Parks, Inc.
260 So. 2d 476 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1972)
Martin v. L. & A. CONTRACTING CO.
162 So. 2d 870 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1964)
Dependents of Dawson v. Delta Western Exploration Co.
147 So. 2d 485 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1962)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
146 So. 2d 327, 244 Miss. 752, 1962 Miss. LEXIS 504, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/the-harrison-co-v-norton-miss-1962.