Farmer v. Barlow Truck Lines, Inc.
| Decision Date | 03 November 1998 |
| Docket Number | No. 81030,81030 |
| Citation | 979 S.W.2d 169 |
| Parties | Kathleen FARMER, Appellant, v. BARLOW TRUCK LINES, INC., Employer Insurance of Wausau, and State Treasurer, Respondents. |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Price C. Kellar, III, Kellar, Hays & Lynch, P.C., Springfield, for Appellant.
Ronald G. Sparlin, Greg B. Carter, Blanchard, Robertson, Mitchell & Carter, P.C., Joplin, for respondents Barlow Truck Lines, Inc., 2nd Employer Ins. of Wausau.
Jeremiah W. (Jay) Nixon, Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, Cara Lee Harris, Asst. Atty. Gen., Springfield, for respondent State Treasurer.
1
The Labor and Industrial Relations Commission decided that it did not have jurisdiction to consider Kathleen Farmer's claim for workers' compensation. She appeals. The decision is reversed, and the case is remanded to the commission for consideration of Farmer's claim.
The commission's administrative law judge (ALJ) dismissed Farmer's claim "with prejudice" when neither party appeared for a hearing on April 22, 1994. On May 10, 1994, the ALJ ordered the dismissal set aside and the case "reset in docket in regular order." No explanation for the action appears in the record.
On May 23, 1994, the ALJ transferred the case from St. Joseph to Joplin. Apparently on December 6, 1996, a second ALJ again dismissed the case:
It is my opinion that the Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District, would find that I have no jurisdiction in this case. There was a dismissal of this case and the dismissal was set aside without any application for [review] having been filed with the Labor and [Industrial] Relations Commission. The Eastern District in State ex rel[.] Doe Run v. Brown, 918 S.W.2d 303 (Mo.App.1996), and the Western District in State ex rel[.] Famous Barr v. Labor and Industrial Relations Commission, (Mo.App.1996), held that once a case is dismissed by the administrative law judge, the Division of Workers' Compensation does not retain jurisdiction to deal with that case in any manner absent a timely application for review to and the setting aside of the order of dismissal by the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission. I will not set this case again. I order that the file be closed.
On December 23, 1996, Farmer asked the commission to review the latter dismissal. Based on Brown and Famous Barr, the commission dismissed Farmer's request for commission review. The commission concluded that it did not have jurisdiction to consider the matter, based on sections 287.480 and 287.655, 2 because Farmer did not appeal the original dismissal within twenty days.
A cardinal principle of all administrative law cases is that an administrative tribunal is a creature of statute and exercises only that authority invested by legislative enactment. Bodenhausen v. Mo. Bd. of Regis. for Healing, 900 S.W.2d 621 (Mo. banc 1995); Soars v. Soars-Lovelace, Inc., 346 Mo. 710, 142 S.W.2d 866 (Mo.1940). The statutes relating to a particular tribunal are those to be examined. As this case involves a workers' compensation claim, the relevant statutes are those contained in chapter 287.
Barlow Truck Lines and the treasurer note that section 287.655 provides that a dismissal by an ALJ for failure to prosecute "shall be deemed an award and subject to review and appeal in the same manner as provided for other awards in this chapter." They argue that the ALJ is prohibited by section 287.610.2 from setting aside the dismissal. We disagree.
Section 287.610.2 says, "The administrative law judges appointed by the division ... shall have no jurisdiction whatsoever upon any review hearing, either in the way of an appeal from an original hearing or by way of reopening any prior award[.]" Barlow Truck Lines and the treasurer argue that allowing an ALJ to set aside an order dismissing a case constitutes reopening a prior award and is, therefore, prohibited by section 287.610.2.
This argument fails to recognize that section 287.610.2 must be read in context with section 287.480 () and section 287.470 (). When a dismissal for failing to prosecute is set aside prior to an application for review being timely filed and within the twenty-day period to request review, the ALJ is not performing a review function under either section 287.470 or section 287.480. Section 287.610.2 does not prohibit an ALJ from setting aside an order prior to the filing of an application for review and within the twenty days in which the dismissal can be appealed; it prohibits the ALJ from exercising a review that ...
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...Treasurer of State of Missouri-Custodian of Second Injury Fund , 326 S.W.3d 876, 879 (Mo. App. W.D. 2010) (quoting Farmer v. Barlow Truck Lines, Inc. , 979 S.W.2d 169, 170 (Mo. banc 1998) ). The extent of the statutory authority afforded the Commission is described in § 286.060. State ex re......
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...State ex rel. Doe Run Co. v. Brown, 918 S.W.2d 303, 307 (Mo.App. E.D. 1996), overruled on other grounds by Farmer v. Barlow Truck Lines, Inc., 979 S.W.2d 169, 171 (Mo. banc At the outset, we note that statutory construction is a matter of law, not fact. City of St. Joseph v. Village of Coun......
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...§ 286.060.1(4) and (8), RSMo 2000; Doe Run Co. v. Brown, 918 S.W.2d 303, 306 (Mo.App.1996), overruled on other grounds by Farmer v. Barlow Truck Lines, 979 S.W.2d 169 (Mo. banc 1998). The "Commission has exclusive jurisdiction in the first instance as to matters covered by the Workers' Comp......
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Wilcut v. Innovative Warehousing, No. ED 88247 (Mo. App. 6/19/2007)
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