McCabe Inspection Service v. Willard

• Decision Date: 05 February 1957
• Docket Number: No. 176,Docket 24343.,176
• Parties: McCABE INSPECTION SERVICE, Inc., Employer-Plaintiff-Appellee, and The State Insurance Fund, Insurance Carrier-Plaintiff-Appellee, v. John A. WILLARD, Deputy Commissioner for the Second Compensation District of the United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Employees' Compensation, Defendant-Appellant, and William Barefield, Employee-Defendant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

240 F.2d 942 (1957)

McCABE INSPECTION SERVICE, Inc., Employer-Plaintiff-Appellee, and The State Insurance Fund, Insurance Carrier-Plaintiff-Appellee, v. John A. WILLARD, Deputy Commissioner for the Second Compensation District of the United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Employees' Compensation, Defendant-Appellant, and William Barefield, Employee-Defendant.

No. 176, Docket 24343.

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued January 15, 1957.

Decided February 5, 1957.

Paul W. Williams, U. S. Atty., for Southern District of New York, New York City (Stuart Rothman, Solicitor of Labor, Ward E. Boote, Asst. Solicitor, and Herbert P. Miller, Attorney, U. S. Department of Labor, of counsel), for appellant.

James J. Carroll, Acting General Attorney of State Insurance Fund, New York City (Victor Fiddler, Glen Oaks, and George J. Hayes, New York City, of counsel), for appellees.

Before MEDINA and HINCKS, Circuit Judges, and LEIBELL, District Judge.

MEDINA, Circuit Judge.

This case involves judicial review of a compensation order issued under the provisions of the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, 33 U.S.C.A. § 901 et seq.

The claimant, who had been receiving $84 a week as wages, was injured in the course of his duties and suffered both a temporary total disability and a permanent partial disability, for each of which compensation became due under the Act. During the periods in which claimant performed no services, his employer, appellee herein, continued to pay him $84 a week, pursuant to company policy. The amount due as compensation for the temporary total disability was $35 a week. The only question before the District Court, and before us, is whether the Deputy Commissioner erred in holding that the difference of $49 a week when the claimant was not working was "wages" rather than "advance payments of compensation" for the permanent injury.

Since the sums in question were not paid for services rendered, they may not properly be described as "wages," see 33 U.S.C.A. § 902(13), and the cases cited by appellant in which the courts declined to reduce a schedule award for a permanent partial disability by the amount of post-injury earnings, e. g., Atlas Coal Co. v. Moore, 298 Ky. 767, 184 S.W.2d 76; Agricola Furnace Co. v. Smith, 239 Ala. 488, 195 So. 743, are therefore inapplicable. Moreover, the employer does not contend that the claimant is not entitled to the full schedule award; he seeks only to be credited with amounts paid before the permanent injury was administratively determined. The statute provides explicit authority for this position. Section 914(k) is as follows:

"If the employer has made advance payments of compensation, he shall be entitled to be reimbursed out of any unpaid installment or installments of compensation due."

The Deputy Commissioner rejected the employer's contention that the sums in question were "advance...