James v. Anne's Inc., 26762.
| Decision Date | 01 December 2010 |
| Docket Number | No. 26762.,26762. |
| Citation | 390 S.C. 188,701 S.E.2d 730 |
| Court | South Carolina Supreme Court |
| Parties | Allie JAMES, Claimant, Appellant, v. ANNE'S INC., Employer, and Villanova Insurance Company, in liquidation through the South Carolina Property & Casualty Insurance Guaranty Association, Carrier, Respondents. |
Jody Vann McKnight, of the Reisen Law Firm, of Charleston, for Appellant.
Mark D. Cauthen, T. Jeff Goodwyn, Jr., and Peter P. Leventis, IV, all of McKay, Cauthen, Settana & Stubley, of Columbia, for Respondents.
Andrew Nathan Safran, of Columbia, Ronald J. Jebaily and Suzanne H. Jebaily, both of the Jebaily Law Firm, of Florence, and Stephen B. Samuels, of Columbia, all for Amicus Curiae South Carolina Injured Workers' Advocates; William Hughes Nicholson, III, of Nicholson & Anderson, of Greenwood, for Amicus Curiae South Carolina Association for Justice; Susan Berkowitz and Stephen Suggs, both of the South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center, of Columbia, for Amicus Curiae South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center; and John S. Nichols and Blake A. Hewitt, both of Bluestein, Nichols & Thompson, of Columbia, for the three foregoing Amici; and Samuel F. Painter, of Nexsen Pruet, of Columbia, for Amicus Curiae South Carolina Self-Insurers Association, Inc.
The South Carolina Workers' Compensation Commission found Allie James ("James") was totally and permanently disabled from a work accident and that she was entitled to a lump sum award of benefits. The Commission denied James's request to include language in the order prorating the lump sum award over her life expectancy after her employer and its carrier ("Respondents") objected. The circuit court affirmed. James appealed, arguing the Commission has the authority to include language in the order prorating the lump sum award over her life expectancy and should have done so. We affirmed the circuit court in James v. Anne's Inc., 386 S.C. 326, 688 S.E.2d 562 (2010). Subsequently, we granted James's petition for rehearing.1 We now withdraw that opinion and substitute the current opinion reversing the circuit court's order and remanding the matter in accordance with this decision.
On May 10, 2002, James sustained injuries to her back, neck, and head when she slipped and fell down some stairs while working at Anne's Dress Shop in Charleston County. James worked for this employer for approximately twenty years before being terminated in 2003.
James sought workers' compensation benefits for her injuries. In 2005, the hearing commissioner found James was totally and permanently disabled as a result of the accident and that she was entitled to 500 weeks of compensation benefits, with a credit allowed for the weeks of compensation already paid. The hearing commissioner further found it was appropriate for the award to be made in a lump sum.
The hearing commissioner denied James's request to include language in the order prorating the lump sum award over her life expectancy using the life expectancy table provided by section 19-1-150 of the South Carolina Code 2 after Respondents objected. The hearing commissioner concluded she did not have the authority to include proration language in the order in the absence of consent from Respondents.
James sought review from the full Commission. In a two-to-one decision, the Commission upheld the hearing commissioner. The dissenting commissioner found the Commission does have the authority to include proration language in an order, but that there was no error in failing to include such language in the current case.
James appealed to the circuit court, which affirmed the Commission in a form order. James moved for reconsideration, which the circuit court denied in a formal order filed November 15, 2006.
James appealed to this Court, which affirmed in a split decision. James v. Anne's Inc., 386 S.C. 326, 688 S.E.2d 562 (2010). The majority held that, without an express grant of authority from the South Carolina General Assembly, theCommission did not have the authority to include language prorating a lump sum award over a claimant's life expectancy without the consent of all parties. The dissent found that authority to include proration language existed by virtue of the statute conferring a general grant of authority to the Commission to decide all questions arising under the act, citing S.C.Code Ann. § 42-3-180 (1985).
James asserts the circuit court erred in holding the Commission lacks the authority to include language in workers' compensation orders prorating a lump sum award over a claimant's life expectancy in the absence of consent from all parties, and in refusing to include such language in her case. We agree.
An appellate court has the power upon review to reverse or modify a decision of an administrative agency if the findings and conclusions of the agency are (1) affected by an error of law, (2) clearly erroneous in view of the reliable and substantial evidence on the whole record, or (3) arbitrary or capricious or characterized by abuse of discretion or a clearly unwarranted exercise of discretion. Gray v. Club Group, Ltd., 339 S.C. 173, 182, 528 S.E.2d 435, 440 (Ct.App.2000).
As an initial matter, we note the three amici participating in the oral argument of this case have filed a joint brief regarding the merits of the appeal and asserting as a threshold issue that this matter is not justiciable. The amici specifically assert Respondents lack standing because they cannot show any injury from allocating the lump sum award as it is merely a mathematical calculation that will have no effect on their liability for compensation. We conclude the amici's allegation regarding justiciability, and more particularly standing, is not properly before the Court in the current procedural posture.
"Before any action can be maintained, there must exist a justiciable controversy."Byrd v. Irmo High Sch., 321 S.C. 426, 430, 468 S.E.2d 861, 864 (1996). "A justiciable controversy is a real and substantial controversy which is ripe and appropriate for judicial determination, as distinguished from a contingent, hypothetical or abstract dispute." Pee Dee Elec. Coop. v. Carolina Power & Light Co., 279 S.C. 64, 66, 301 S.E.2d 761, 762 (1983). Justiciability encompasses several doctrines, including ripeness, mootness, and standing. Jackson v. State, 331 S.C. 486, 489 S.E.2d 915 (1997).
Rule 213 of the South Carolina Appellate Court Rules, governing Amicus Curiae Briefs, states an amicus brief is limited to the issues raised by the parties: "The brief shall be limited to argument of the issues on appeal as presented by the parties and shall comply with the requirements of Rules 208(b) and 211." Rule 213, SCACR.
Although James did argue that proration would not have any effect upon Respondents because it would not change the actual amount of the monetary award, it was in the context of responding to Respondents' argument that proration over a claimant's lifetime was not authorized because our workers' compensation statutes limit a claimant to a maximum of 500 weeks of compensation in most instances. Thus, justiciability and standing were not raised by the parties.
This Court has the inherent authority to consider justiciability. However, when a party belatedly attempts to raise the issue of standing, our courts have applied error preservation principles and held that the matter was not preserved for review where the trial court was not given an opportunity to firstrule on the issue.3
In the current appeal, it is not a party, but the amici who are attempting to belatedly raise standing, but we find theyare similarly precluded from asserting the issue on error preservation grounds because the amici can argue only the issues that were raised by the parties. See Rule 213, SCACR.
In this case, James sought a proration of her lump sum award using the life expectancy table found at S.C.Code Ann. § 19-1-150. As noted by the circuit court, James's
Under federal law, when a person is deemed disabled and is entitled to monthly disability payments under the Social Security Act, the disability payments must be reduced when the combined amount of the person's monthly Social Security disability payments and any monthly workers' compensation benefits exceeds eighty percent of the person's pre-disability earnings. See 42 U.S.C.A. § 424a(a) (2003) (). When the workers' compensation benefits are "payable on other than a monthly basis (excluding a benefit payable as a lump sum except to the extent that it is a commutation of, or a substitute for, periodic payments), the reduction under this section shall be made ... in such amounts as the Commissioner of Social Security finds will approximate as nearly as practicable the reduction prescribed by subsection (a) of this section." Id. § 424a(b) (emphasis added). Thus, lump sum awards generally necessitate a reduction in Social Security disability benefits in instances where they result from a commutation of periodic payments.
The Social Security Administration does not apply a reduction or an offset, however, where a state has enacted a reduction of their workers' compensation benefits in these circumstances by February 18, 1981. This reduction (by the individual states) is known as a "reverse-offset" provision. Tommy W. Rogers & Willie L. Rose, Workers' Compensation and Public Disability Benefits Offset from Social Security Disability Benefits, 29 S.U. L.Rev. 57, 60 (2001).
South Carolina did not legislatively enact a reverse-offset provision. Grady L. Beard et al., The Law of...
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