Washington v. Holmes Barnes, Limited

9 So. 2d 35, 200 La. 787, 1942 La. LEXIS 1240
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedMay 25, 1942
DocketNo. 36546.
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 9 So. 2d 35 (Washington v. Holmes Barnes, Limited) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Washington v. Holmes Barnes, Limited, 9 So. 2d 35, 200 La. 787, 1942 La. LEXIS 1240 (La. 1942).

Opinion

FOURNET, Justice.'

This is a suit by an employee to set aside the lump-sum settlement entered into between himself, his employer, and its insurer, with the approval of the court, on July 6, 1939, and to recover compensation against the defendants for total permanent disability, plus a penalty of 50%, to be paid in a lump sum, with legal interest, less the amount previously paid him. The matter is now before us on a writ of certiorari to review the judgment of the Court of Appeal for the First Circuit (4 So.2d 51) wherein the appellate court reversed the judgment of the lower court dismissing plaintiff’s suit and awarded plaintiff compensation at the rate of $3 a week for a period not to exceed 273 weeks, with legal interest (plaintiff having been paid full compensation for a period of 27 weeks), subject to a credit of $496.73, $248.82 being the amount paid plaintiff as compensation under the lump-sum settlement and $247.91 being the amount paid for medical expenses in excess of that authorized by law.

In his petition the plaintiff alleged that the settlement entered into under the judgment of July 6, 1939, was null and void, having been made in contravention of the provisions of the Employer’s Liability Act, Act No. 20 of 1914, prohibiting lump-sum settlements at a greater rate of discount than 8% per annum for the reason that the settlement was based on the erroneous suppositions that plaintiff’s weekly wage was $11 when in fact it was $13.25, and that the plaintiff had suffered only a 20% disability of his left arm when in fact he was totally disabled, as well as on the fraudulent representation that the plaintiff was getting under the settlement the full amount allowed him by law and that he would be permitted to continue in his employment at the same wage he was receiving when injured.

In their answer the defendants admitted they had entered into a lump-sum settlement with the plaintiff but denied there was any fraud connected therewith or that the plaintiff was totally permanently disabled. Further answering, the defendants denied plaintiff’s base pay was $13.25 a week, averring that he was paid at the rate of 250 an hour for 44 hours a week (8 hours a day for a 5%-day week) in accordance with the provisions of the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, 29 U.S.C.A. § 201 et seq., which act requires that where an employee works in excess of the 44 hours a week provided by law, he must be paid time and a half for overtime.

The Court of Appeal found as a fact, as did the lower court, that there was no evidence in the record sustaining the charge of fraud in’ the confection of the settlement sanctioned by court approval. Counsel for plaintiff evidently conceded this for we ■find in the opinion of the lower court the *792 statement that this phase of the case was not even discussed by them in their brief. In plaintiff’s brief filed in this court in support of the application for a writ of certiorari, we find that counsel declare: “Applicant is before this Court on two major propositions of law, first that under the facts found here both by the Trial Court and by the Court of Appeal it was shown that applicant was permanently and totally incapacitated after the accident to satisfactorily do the work that he was doing as a truck driver when the accident occurred, and that he is thus entitled to compensation for permanent total disability, and secondly, and in the alternative, that if the compensation is to be figured on the basis of permanent partial disability then it should either be computed upon the actual difference in earning capacity before and after the accident or in any event, it should be figured at 65% of the earnings at the time of the accident for a period of 300 weeks, and that there is no remote sanction in the law to further reduce this 65% by relating it to the alleged degree of disability as was done here.”

The Court of Appeal affirmed the lower court’s finding that the defendant was not permanently totally disabled to perform work similar in character to that performed by him at the time of the injury, which finding, in our opinion, is amply supported by the evidence.

Both plaintiff and defendants say the settlement had between them in accordance with the judgment of the district court of July 6, 1939, was made in pursuance to subsection 9 of Section 8 of Act No. 20 of 1914, as amended, by Act No. 242 of 1928, the defendant contending that since the provisions of the act were fully complied with, such a settlement, in the absence of fraud, is binding on the plaintiff, fully discharging the employer’s liability under the act.

As was pointed out when the case of Puchner v. Employers’ Liability Assurance Corporation, 198 La. 921, 5 So.2d 288, 292, was originally before us. “* * * Under subsection 9 (formerly subsection 8) of Section 8 of Act No. 20 of 1914, as amended, by Act No. 242 of 1928, where there is no dispute, the parties, by agreement, may have the amounts payable as compensation commuted to a lump sum settlement provided (1) the approval of the court is secured, and (2) the amount due is not discounted at a rate greater than 8 per cent per annum. * * *”

The subsection above referred to authorizes the payment of compensation in a lump sum where there is no dispute between the parties, provided (1) the settlement L approved by the court as being in reasonable compliance with the provisions of the act, and (2) the amount due is not discounted at a rate greater than 8% per annum. When these conditions have been complied with, the act declares the liability “of the employer making such payment shall be fully satisfied; provided, that for injuries scheduled in paragraphs 1-d [loss of various members of the body] and 2 [for injury causing death within a year after the accident] of this section, no shorter term than therein set forth have been agreed upon.”

*794 The settlement in the instant case was based upon a joint petition of the plaintiff, George Washington, his employer, Holmes & Barnes, Ltd., and its insurer, the Great American Indemnity Company, properly verified by all of these parties, after the same had received full court approval. In the agreement annexed to the application it is stipulated Washington was injured on or about December 9, 1938, while performing his duties for Holmes & Barnes, Ltd., when a truck of the company overturned, a portion thereof falling on his arm and “causing a complete comminuted fracture of the left humerus at the junction of the middle and lower third, with an inward angulation and several detached fragments of the bone at the site of the fracture, lacerations, brush burns and possibly other injuries”; that at that time, and prior thereto, Washington’s weekly wage was $11, computed “on a basis of eight (8) hours per day, five and one-half (5%) days a week, his hourly wage being twenty-five (25^) cents. That sixty-five (65%) per cent of said weekly wage is seven and 15/100 (7.15) dollars.” Washington admitted that at the time the agreement was entered into he had fully recovered from all injuries received in the accident, other than a partial disability of his left arm, which was estimated in the agreement at a 20% disability, and that he had returned to work on June 19, 1939, doing the same kind of work as he had been doing previously, receiving therefor the same compensation.

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Bluebook (online)
9 So. 2d 35, 200 La. 787, 1942 La. LEXIS 1240, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/washington-v-holmes-barnes-limited-la-1942.