Garrett's Furniture v. Morgan, 45417

• Decision Date: 20 June 1972
• Docket Number: No. 45417,45417
• Citation: 498 P.2d 1380
• Parties: GARRETT'S FURNITURE and Mid-Continent Casualty Company, Petitioners, v. Clyde MORGAN and the State Industrial Court, Respondents.
• Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court

Page 1380

498 P.2d 1380

GARRETT'S FURNITURE and Mid-Continent Casualty Company, Petitioners, v. Clyde MORGAN and the State Industrial Court, Respondents.

No. 45417.

Supreme Court of Oklahoma.

June 20, 1972.

Syllabus by the Court

Maximum compensation benefits under the Oklahoma Workmen's Compensation Act, 85 O.S.1971, § 22, allowable to an injured workman, is five hundered weeks and the injured workman is not entitled to receive an award for permanent disfigurement in addition to the allowance of five hundred weeks for total permanent disability.

Original proceeding to review an award of the State Industrial Court; A. R. Swank, Jr., Trial Judge.

Petitioner, Garrett's Furniture, respondent below, seeks review of an award of the State Industrial Court allowing the respondent, Clyde Morgan, claimant below, an award for permanent disfigurement in addition to an award of five hundred weeks for total and permanent disability, award vacated in part and sustained in part.

Henry W. Nichols, Jr., Watts, Looney, Nichols & Johnson, Oklahoma City, for petitioners.

Paul Stumbaugh, Mangum, for respondents.

DAVISON, Vice Chief Justice.

There is presented here for review an award of a trial judge of the State Industrial Court, affirmed by the court sitting en banc, awarding the respondent, Clyde Morgan, claimant below, total and permanent disability of five hundred weeks compensation, and in addition twelve hundred and fifty dollars for permanent disfigurement. Parties will be referred to as they appeared before the State Industrial Court, respondent Clyde Morgan, as claimant, and petitioner, Garrett's Furniture, as respondent, and the State Industrial Court as the 'trial court.'

Respondent challenges solely that portion of the award allowing the claimant the sum of twelve hundred and fifty dollars for permanent disfigurement in addition to an award of five hundred weeks for total and permanent disability.

We have hold that the maximum Workmen's Compensation benefits an injured employee may be awarded under the provisions of the Oklahoma Workmen's Compensation Act, 85 O.S.1971, § 22, is an award for five hundred weeks and the State Industrial Court cannot award an injured party any amount for permanent disfigurement in addition to an award for five hundred total and permanent disability. Oklahoma Natural Gas Corporation v. Smith, 147 Okl. 221, 296 P. 454 (1931); Federal Mining & Smelting Co. v. Warman, 145 Okl. 281, 292 P. 865 (1930).

Claimant contends that the Smith and Warman cases decided more than forty years ago are no longer controlling and that in recent years courts have been taking a different view on awards of disfigurement citing Peerless Rock Co. v. Bowers, Okl., 267 P.2d 556 (1954); Grinnell Co., Inc. v. Smith, 203 Okl. 158, 218 P.2d 1043 (1950); Caddo County v. Hartman, 196 Okl. 276, 164 P.2d 617 (1945); and Black, Sivalls & Bryson v. Homier, 194 Okl. 162, 148 P.2d 166 (1944).

The cases cited simply hold that an award for disfigurement may be made independently of other awards. None of the cases involve the allowance of an award for disfigurement in addition to an award of five hundred weeks for total permanent disability. They are not in point here.

The rules of law declared in Oklahoma Natural Gas Corporation v. Smith, supra, and Federal Mining and Smelting Co. v. Warman, supra, have not been modified, overruled, limited or restricted but have been reaffirmed by later decisions of this court. Special Indemnity Fund v. Sims, 196 Okl. 101, 163 P.2d 210 (1945); Brunstetter Motor Co. v. Brunstetter, 169 Okl. 184, 35 P.2d 694 (1934).

The rule of law established in the Smith and Warman cases is in accord with later decisions from other jurisdictions. In Rupert v. Todd Shipyards (C.C.A. 9, 1956),...