Field v. Sears, Roebuck & Co.

• Court: Montana Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: GRAY; TURNAGE; TRIEWEILER; HUNT
• Citation: Field v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 847 P.2d 306, 257 Mont. 81 (Mont. 1993)
• Decision Date: 25 February 1993
• Docket Number: No. 92-051,92-051
• Parties: Robert D. FIELD, Petitioner and Appellant, v. SEARS, ROEBUCK & COMPANY, Defendant and Respondent.

Page 306

847 P.2d 306

257 Mont. 81

Robert D. FIELD, Petitioner and Appellant, v. SEARS, ROEBUCK & COMPANY, Defendant and Respondent.

No. 92-051.

Supreme Court of Montana.

Submitted on Briefs Aug. 6, 1992.

Decided Feb. 25, 1993.

Geoffrey R. Keller, Matovich, Addy & Keller, Billings, for petitioner and appellant.

J. Michael Young and Steven T. Potts, Jardine, Stephenson, Blewett and Weaver, Great Falls, for defendant and respondent.

GRAY, Justice.

Robert D. Field appeals from the Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Judgment of the Workers' Compensation Court denying attorney's fees and costs for pursuit of permanent total disability benefits, and refusing to impose a penalty against Sears, Roebuck & Company. We affirm.

We restate the issues on appeal as follows:

1. Did the Workers' Compensation Court err in denying claimant's request for attorney's fees and costs for pursuit of permanent total disability benefits?

2. Did the Workers' Compensation Court err by failing to impose a penalty for unreasonable delay in conceding permanent total disability?

On December 22, 1980, claimant Robert D. Field was injured while driving a repair truck for Sears, Roebuck & Company (Sears), his employer. Sears paid temporary total disability benefits from the date of the accident until claimant returned to work.

Claimant's employment with Sears terminated on July 19, 1984. At that time, claimant requested reinstatement of temporary total disability benefits. Sears refused. On March 13, 1985, Sears offered claimant $15,000 as a full and final compromise settlement. Claimant rejected this offer and demanded that Sears place him on temporary total disability retroactive to July, 1984. Sears agreed to make the payments under a reservation of rights.

On March 1, 1991, claimant requested that Sears formally accept his claim as a claim for permanent total disability. Sears responded that it was not prepared to concede permanent total disability and requested additional vocational testing. The results of that testing were received on June 5. On June 18, Sears asked claimant to make a settlement offer; claimant responded on July 10 with a demand for $15,000, $72,000 in attorney's fees and an annuity paying $700 per month for twenty years.

Nine days later, on July 19, claimant filed a petition for hearing with the Workers' Compensation Court on the issues of permanent total disability; a lump sum advance for home repairs, vehicle replacement and debts; attorney's fees; and penalty. Sears responded, in part, by denying that claimant was permanently totally disabled. At the pretrial conference on August 22, Sears continued to deny permanent total disability benefits; the hearing was set for September 23. Sears conceded permanent total disability on August 29 and filed an amended response reflecting the concession. The hearing was continued to, and held on, October 7, 1991.

The Workers' Compensation Court heard testimony regarding the lump sum advance and the events leading to Sears' concession of the permanent total disability issue. The Workers' Compensation Court awarded claimant a lump sum conversion and attorney's fees relative to the lump sum issue. It denied attorney's fees and costs for claimant's pursuit of permanent total disability benefits under Sec. 39-71-612, MCA (1979), and declined to award a penalty for unreasonable delay under Sec. 39-71-2907, MCA (1979).

Did the Workers' Compensation Court err in denying claimant's request for attorney's fees and costs for pursuit of permanent total disability benefits?

In its Conclusions of Law, the Workers' Compensation Court determined that claimant was not entitled to attorney's fees and costs for pursuit of permanent total disability benefits under Sec. 39-71-612, MCA (1979). Section 39-71-612, MCA (1979), provides:

If an employer or insurer pays or tenders payment of compensation under chapter 71 or 72 of this title, but controversy relates to the amount of compensation due and the settlement or award is greater than the amount paid or tendered by the employer or insurer, a reasonable attorney's fee as established by the division or the workers' compensation judge if the case has gone to a hearing, based solely upon the difference between the amount settled for or awarded and the amount tendered or paid, may be awarded in addition to the amount of compensation.

Although the legislature has amended Sec. 39-71-612, MCA, since 1979, we determine whether a claimant is entitled to attorney's fees under the statute in effect on the date of injury. Hilbig v. Central Glass Co. (1991), 249 Mont. 396, 399, 816 P.2d 1037, 1039.

The Workers' Compensation Court determined that this case was factually similar to Lasar v. E.H. Oftedal & Sons (1986), 222 Mont. 251, 721 P.2d 352, and applied the Lasar reasoning in concluding that claimant was not entitled to attorney's fees and costs based on pursuit of permanent total disability benefits under Sec. 39-71-612, MCA (1979). The Workers' Compensation Court correctly applied Lasar.

In Lasar, we stated that the attorney fee statute at issue, identical to that before us, requires a claimant to satisfy two conditions before recovering attorney's fees: (1) the amount of compensation must be in controversy; and (2) the amount awarded must exceed the amount paid or tendered. Lasar, 222 Mont. at 253, 721 P.2d at 354. In Lasar, the insurer conceded permanent total disability approximately three weeks prior to trial. We concluded that "[s]ince the insurer agreed on the amount of compensation due, no controversy existed at trial and the amount awarded was the same as that agreed upon as due." Lasar, 222 Mont. at 253, 721 P.2d at 354. Like the insurer in Lasar, Sears conceded claimant's permanent total disability and corresponding compensation due approximately three weeks prior to the original trial date (and five weeks before the hearing actually occurred). Neither the extent of claimant's disability nor the amount of compensation due him for that disability was in issue at any time thereafter or when claimant's petition proceeded to hearing. Therefore, claimant failed to satisfy the first condition to attorney's fees required by Sec. 39-71-612, MCA (1979), and Lasar, that the amount of compensation be in controversy.

Claimant offered several theories to show that the amount awarded exceeded the amount paid or tendered--the second condition required by Sec. 39-71-612, MCA (1979), and Lasar. Claimant contended he was entitled to attorney's fees based on the difference between the $15,000 settlement offer and the permanent total disability. Alternatively, claimant contended he was entitled to attorney's fees based on the difference between "permanent partial disability" he alleges Sears paid between June 5 and August 29 and the permanent total disability. Because claimant fails to meet the first condition of Sec. 39-71-612, MCA (1979), we do not address the second condition.

Claimant attempts to distinguish Lasar by focusing on the interval of time between discovery of the information on which concession subsequently was based and actual concession of the issue. In Lasar, the insurer conceded benefits within two weeks of deposing claimant. Here, Sears had all the information it later relied on to concede total permanent disability benefits on June 5, when it obtained the results of the vocational testing; it conceded the issue on August 29. According to claimant, this is the pivotal time period which distinguishes the present case from Lasar.

It is true that, here, Sears had possession of the information upon which it ultimately conceded the permanent total disability issue longer than the insurer in Lasar. The time period between completion of discovery upon which concession was made and the concession itself was not the basis of our decision in Lasar, however. We focused in Lasar on the three week period remaining after the concession and before trial and on the fact that the concession occurred before additional discovery or new documentation on the conceded issue was undertaken. The facts which formed the basis for our decision in Lasar are similar to those in the case before us; if anything, the facts before us are more compelling. Here, the concession occurred some five weeks before the hearing and no discovery was undertaken by either party on the permanent total disability issue between June 5 and Sears' concession on August 29. Subsequent to Lasar, we have reiterated that there must be a controversy concerning disability that is later judged compensable before attorney's fees can be awarded under Sec. 39-71-612, MCA. Komeotis v. Williamson Fencing (1988); 232 Mont. 340, 345, 756 P.2d 1153, 1156. As in Lasar, the insurer in Komeotis conceded disability benefits prior to the hearing. We affirmed the Workers' Compensation Court's denial of attorney's fees because disability benefits did not remain at issue for adjudication by the court.

Claimant relies on Krause v. Sears Roebuck & Company (1982), 197 Mont. 102, 641 P.2d 458, for the proposition that attorney's fees properly are awarded absent an adjudication of permanent total disability. Claimant misreads Krause.

In Krause, claimant was receiving temporary total disability benefits from Sears. He petitioned the Workers' Compensation Court for permanent total disability benefits converted into a lump sum award. Sears denied permanent total disability. Discovery was completed on all issues and the case proceeded to hearing. Only after the hearing had begun did Sears concede permanent total disability. Notwithstanding the concession, claimant presented proof on his permanent total disability in conjunction with his lump sum conversion request. The disability issue having remained in controversy into the adjudication phase of the proceedings and proof having been submitted on the issue, the Workers' Compensation Court entered a conclusion of law on claimant's permanent...