Travelers Insurance Co. v. Haney

88 S.E.2d 492, 92 Ga. App. 319
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedApril 27, 1955
Docket35591, 35612
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 88 S.E.2d 492 (Travelers Insurance Co. v. Haney) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Travelers Insurance Co. v. Haney, 88 S.E.2d 492, 92 Ga. App. 319 (Ga. Ct. App. 1955).

Opinions

Nichols, J.

While the State Board of Workmen’s Compensation is not a court of general jurisdiction, nor even of limited common-law jurisdiction (Gravitt v. Georgia Casualty Co., 158 Ga. 613 (2), 123 S. E. 897), it acts in a quasi judicial capacity, and may take judicial cognizance of its own judgments, orders, etc. Accordingly, upon consideration of the application of the claimant for a lump-sum settlement, and the request of the defendants for a hearing on the question of change in condition, the board was authorized to determine from its record that it had made an award finding that the claimant was permanently and totally disabled and that maximum improvement had been reached. This adjudication, which was affirmed on appeal to the superior court, and to which judgment there was no exception, established as the law of the case that the claimant was totally and permanently disabled as of the date of the award, to wit, March 10, 1954.

The question here presented is whether or not a finding by the board on March 10, 1954, that the claimant was permanently and totally disabled, and where an appeal to the superior court was there denied and no exception was taken, bars a rehearing on the ground of an alleged change in condition.

The doctrine of res adjudicata—which in ordinary proceedings gives to a judgment a finality and conclusiveness as to all matters which were put in issue, or which might under the pleadings have been put in issue—is not always applicable to an award by the State Board of Workmen’s Compensation. However, the powers of the board to reopen and rehear cases in which an award has been made are limited by the compensation act itself. The right to a review of an award by the board, where otherwise res adjudicata, is found in § 45 of the act of 1920 (Ga. L. 1920, p. 191) as amended by the act of 1931 (Ga. L. 1931, pp. 7, 43), as, amended by the act of 1937 (Ga. L. 1937, pp. 230, 233, 528, 534), and as amended by the act of 1943 (Ga. L. 1943, pp. 167-169), shown in Code (Ann. Supp.) as § 114-709. The provision is as follows: “Upon their own motion before judicial determination or upon the application of any party in interest on the ground of

[323]*323a change in condition, the State Board of Workmen’s Compensation may, within two years from the date that the Board is notified of the final payment of claim, review any award or any settlement made between the parties and filed with the Board and, on such review, may make an award ending, diminishing or increasing the compensation previously awarded or agreed upon, subject to the maximum or minimum provided in this Title, and shall immediately send to the parties a copy of the award. No such review shall affect such award as regards any moneys paid.” This is the only authority for a review. New Amsterdam Casualty Co. v. McFarley, 191 Ga. 334, 337 (12 S. E. 2d 355). As stated in Home Accident Ins. Co. v. McNair, 173 Ga. 566, 569 (161 S. E. 131): “Jurisdiction of the commission to review is based upon certain conditions precedent. In the first place, there must be a change in the condition of the employee before a proceeding can be instituted to review the award. In the second place, no such review can affect such award as regards any moneys paid thereunder. In the last place, the commission on review can not make an award ending, diminishing, or increasing the compensation previously awarded, except subject to the maximum and minimum compensation provided in this act. In all other respects the award concludes both the employer and the employee, and is res adjudicata as to their rights. So on review the industrial commission can not make a retroactive award to become effective as of the date of the original award. It can not treat moneys paid under the original award as compensating the employee for compensation awarded on review, on the theory that the compensation received under the original award was sufficient to pay the compensation which would be due the employee for a permanent partial loss of capacity from the date of the original award to the date of the rendition of the award on review. It is not the purpose of section 45 of this act to abolish entirely the doctrine of res adjudicata; but it was intended to relieve the parties from this doctrine in the particular instances named therein.” See also Riegel Textile Corp. v. Vinyard, 88 Ga. App. 753, 755 (77 S. E. 2d 760). It must be borne in mind that the review which is authorized is dependent upon an original award of compensation or an approved agreement which is made the award of the board. Where, as in Gravitt v. Georgia Cas[324]*324ualty Co., 158 Ga. 613, supra, the claimant was found to be a farm employee and therefore exempt from the operation of the compensation act, no review could be had under § 45 as amended. “The distinction between the finality of awards granting and denying compensation under the law as it is written is that the law keeps the case pending where compensation is awarded and makes a judgment denying compensation in the first instance a final judgment ending the entire case for all purposes, in which case the only remedy is an appeal from the award within the time prescribed by statute. Code, § 114-710. The fact that the first appeal was not prosecuted is immaterial. Even if the appeal had been prosecuted and denied, the case would still be pending insofar as a change in the claimant’s physical condition is concerned.” U. S. Fidelity & Guaranty Co. v. Garner, 76 Ga. App. 87, 89 (45 S. E. 2d 109). “The proceeding to review is not a new pi’oceeding, but is based upon the jurisdiction of the commission acquired by the filing of the original proceeding for compensation. The jurisdiction of the commission over a case is lost when there is full compliance with its award, unless there is a provision in the act or in the award conferring continued jurisdiction of the case upon the commission. Bosquet v. Howe Scale Co., 96 Vt. 364 (120 Atl. 171). Section 45 of this act expressly provides for compensation in a case where there has been a change in the condition of the employee; and this necessarily extends the jurisdiction of the commission to review a settlement agreement or its original award.” U. S. Casualty Co. v. Smith, 162 Ga. 130, 134 (133 S. E. 851). “There is no limit whatever upon the number of applications which either the employer or the employee may make on the ground of a change in condition. It is possible under this law for the employer to be harassed with repeated applications from the same claimant, but it is equally true that the employer may harass the beneficiary of compensation by repeated applications to have it discontinued. If this be a defect in the law it is a matter for legislative consideration. In view of this provision of the compensation act it would not seem proper, as an original proposition, to apply to the law the technical rules which have grown up under the name of res judicata.” Ware v. Swift & Co., 59 Ga. App. 836, 841 (2 S. E. 2d 128).

A very able discussion of the question may be found in Bhin[325]*325dress v. Atlantic Steel Co., 71 Ga. App. 898 (32 S. E. 2d 554), and the illuminating headnotes are as follows: “1.

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Travelers Insurance Co. v. Haney
88 S.E.2d 492 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1955)

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Bluebook (online)
88 S.E.2d 492, 92 Ga. App. 319, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/travelers-insurance-co-v-haney-gactapp-1955.