Nelson v. Timberline Intern., Inc.

• Decision Date: 05 March 1998
• Docket Number: No. 97-439,97-439
• Citation: 964 S.W.2d 357,332 Ark. 165
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court
• Parties: Alvin NELSON, Appellant, v. TIMBERLINE INTERNATIONAL, INC.; Crum & Forster, Carrier; and Second Injury Fund, Appellee.

Page 357

964 S.W.2d 357

332 Ark. 165

Alvin NELSON, Appellant, v. TIMBERLINE INTERNATIONAL, INC.; Crum & Forster, Carrier; and Second Injury Fund, Appellee.

No. 97-439.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

March 5, 1998.

Judson C. Kidd, Little Rock, for Appellant.

Tim A. Cheatham, Judy W. Rudd, Little Rock, for Appellee.

THORNTON, Justice.

Timberline International, Inc., and Crum & Forster Commercial Insurance, its workers' compensation carrier, appeal the decision of the Arkansas Workers' Compensation Commission holding that the Second Injury Trust Fund is not liable for the permanent disability benefits awarded to Alvie Nelson, a former employee of Timberline, because his present condition resulted from the cumulative effect of successive injuries he received while in the same employment. The Arkansas Court of Appeals affirmed the Commission's decision based on the authority of McCarver v. Second Injury Fund, 289 Ark. 509, 715 S.W.2d 429 (1986), and Riceland Foods, Inc. v. Second Injury Fund, 289 Ark. 528, 715 S.W.2d 432 (1986). Nelson v. Timberline Int'l, Inc., 57 Ark.App. 34, 942 S.W.2d 260 (1997). We granted review of the decision of the court of appeals pursuant to Ark. Sup.Ct. R. 1-2(f).

The primary issue is whether we should overrule McCarver and Riceland Foods, in which we affirmed decisions of the court of appeals interpreting Ark. Stat. Ann. § 81-1313(i) (Supp.1985), now codified at Ark.Code Ann. § 11-9-525 (Repl.1996), to mean that the Second Injury Trust Fund is not liable for wage-loss disability benefits resulting from the cumulative effect of successive injuries when the claimant sustains the injuries in the same employment. We are persuaded by a careful review of the McCarver and Riceland Foods decisions that they should be overruled.

The facts of this case are not disputed. In 1988, Alvie Nelson suffered a lower-back injury while working as a diesel mechanic for Timberline. He eventually underwent back surgery resulting in a permanent impairment rating of fifteen percent to the body as a whole. When he recovered, Nelson returned to work at Timberline where he performed lighter work as a mechanic for about six months before being placed in the parts department where he worked for a year or so. Nelson then returned to his job as a diesel mechanic, and, in March 1992, he suffered another lower-back injury, for which he underwent two surgeries. Nelson has not returned to work or attempted to return to work since the second back injury. A neurosurgeon assessed his permanent impairment from the 1992 injury to be an additional fifteen percent to the body as a whole.

Timberline accepted full responsibility for the payment of benefits for the permanent physical impairment resulting from Nelson's second injury. A hearing was held before an administrative law judge to determine the extent of Nelson's permanent disability and the liability for any wage-loss disability benefits in excess of Nelson's permanent physical impairment ratings. The judge found that Nelson was not permanently and totally disabled due to the March 1992 injury but that he had sustained wage-loss disability benefits of sixty percent. The judge also ruled that the Second Injury Trust Fund had no liability for these benefits.

Nelson appealed the administrative law judge's decision to the Workers' Compensation Commission, and Timberline cross-appealed, asserting that the Second Injury Trust Fund was liable for the wage-loss benefits over and above Nelson's permanent physical impairment rating. The Commission rejected Nelson's claim of permanent and total disability, but reversed in part, finding that Nelson had sustained a thirty percent impairment to his earning capacity in excess of his physical impairment rating. Furthermore, the Commission, citing our decisions in McCarver and Riceland Foods, affirmed the determination that the Second Injury Trust Fund had no liability for Nelson's wage-loss disability benefits because he sustained the second disabling injury while working for the same employer for whom he had worked when he suffered his first compensable injury.

Both parties appealed the Commission's decision to the court of appeals, which affirmed on both points. In its opinion, the court of appeals urged that the "same employer" defense, created by the court in McCarver and Riceland Foods, deserves our reconsideration. Nelson, 57 Ark.App. at 36, 942 S.W.2d at 261. Nelson did not file a petition asking us to review the court of appeals' determination that there was sufficient evidence to support the Commission's finding that he was not permanently and totally disabled; therefore, we do not address that determination. On May 5, 1997, we granted Timberline's and Crum & Forster's petition for review solely to determine whether we correctly interpreted Ark. Stat. Ann. § 81-1313(i), now codified at Ark.Code Ann. § 11-9-525, in McCarver and Riceland Foods to provide that the Second Injury Trust Fund is not liable for permanent disability benefits which exceed those directly related to a second injury in the same employment. When we grant review following a decision by the court of appeals, we review the case as though the appeal was originally filed with this court. Stucco Plus, Inc. v. Rose, 327 Ark. 314, 938 S.W.2d 556 (1997).

At the outset, we consider appellee's, the Second Injury Trust Fund, argument that principles of stare decisis militate against revisiting our prior decisions interpreting the liability of the Fund under the statute. We are mindful that under the doctrine of stare decisis we follow the previous decisions of this court construing a statute. Scarbrough v. Cherokee Enterprises, 306 Ark. 641, 816 S.W.2d 876 (1991); Southwest Ark. Communications, Inc. v. Arrington, 296 Ark. 141, 753 S.W.2d 267 (1988). In Southwest Arkansas Communications, Inc., we considered the principle of stare decisis in the context of interpreting a constitutional provision and stated:

A cardinal rule in dealing with constitutional provisions is that they should receive a consistent and uniform interpretation so that they shall not be taken to mean one thing at one time, and a different thing at another time. Certainly, when a constitutional provision or a statute has been construed, and that construction consistently followed for many years, such construction should not be changed.

Id. at 145, 753 S.W.2d at 269 (citing O'Daniel v. Brunswick Balke Collender Co., 195 Ark. 669, 674, 113 S.W.2d 717, 719 (1938)). Nevertheless, as the United States Supreme Court has recognized, stare decisis has never been applied mechanically to prohibit overruling prior decisions that have determined the meaning of statutes. Monell v. Dept. of Social Serv. of City of New York, 436 U.S. 658, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611, (1978). Indeed, this court has, on occasion, departed from a prior statutory interpretation. See Fountain v. Chicago, R.I. & P. Ry., 243 Ark. 947, 422 S.W.2d 878 (1968). We believe the ultimate inquiry is whether there are compelling reasons for abandoning our prior judicial interpretation of the statute. As discussed below, upon review of the McCarver and Riceland Foods decisions, we conclude that compelling reasons exist to overturn them.

We also note that Ark.Code Ann. § 11-9-1001 (Repl.1996) does not affect our ability to decide the issue before us. That statute provides:

When, and if, the workers' compensation statutes of this state need to be changed, the General Assembly acknowledges its responsibility to do so.... In the future, if such things as the statute of limitations, the standard of review by the Workers' Compensation Commission or courts, the extent to which any physical condition, injury, or disease should be excluded from or added to coverage by the law, or the scope of the workers' compensation statutes need to be liberalized, broadened, or narrowed, those things shall be addressed by the General Assembly and should not be done by administrative law judges, the Workers' Compensation Commission, or the courts.

(Emphasis added.)

This language does not preclude our review in this matter because we are not "liberalizing, broadening, or narrowing" the scope of the Workers' Compensation Act. In addressing the liability of the Second Injury Trust Fund for permanent disability benefits under the statute, the issue relates only to the allocation of responsibility for payment of those benefits. The claimant receives the same compensation regardless of who bears the liability. We are not changing the scope of the Workers' Compensation Act; rather, we are merely interpreting a statutory provision allocating responsibility for benefits, which is clearly a function of this court.

Prior to 1979, employers who employed previously impaired workers were obligated under Ark. Stat. Ann. § 81-1313(f)(1) (Repl.1976) to pay benefits for permanent total disability in the event a new injury had the cumulative effect of causing such a permanent disability. That statute provided:

If an employee receives a permanent injury after having previously sustained another permanent injury in the employ of the same employer, for which he is receiving compensation, compensation for the subsequent injury shall be paid for the healing period and permanent disability by extending the period and not by increasing the weekly amount. When the previous and subsequent injuries received result in permanent total disability, compensation shall be payable for permanent total disability as provided in Section 10(a) 81-1310 of this Act.

Ark. Stat. Ann. § 81-1313(f)(1). In order to clarify the provisions of the Arkansas workers' compensation law and to provide improved benefits for persons qualifying under the Act, the Arkansas General Assembly passed Act 290 of 1981, which significantly changed the laws relating to second injuries and repealed all laws in conflict with its provisions. Section 4 of Act 290 provides in pertinent part:

Commencing January 1,...