New State Ice Co. v. Morris, 35887
| Decision Date | 05 July 1955 |
| Docket Number | No. 35887,35887 |
| Citation | 285 P.2d 855 |
| Parties | NEW STATE ICE COMPANY and New Amsterdam Casualty Company, Petitioners, v. Clara B. MORRIS and the State Industrial Commission, Respondents. |
| Court | Oklahoma Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court
The Workmen's Compensation Law House Bill No. 312, Session Laws 1951, requires employers covered by the Act to provide insurance against accidental death arising out of and in the course of hazardous employment, or pay the death benefit if they carry their own risk. Such insurance or the obligation to pay said death benefit if the employer is a carrier of his own risk is in the nature of accidental death insurance. The right of subrogation against a third-party tort-feasor never existed in favor of an employer or insurance carrier. Specific provision therefor would have to be made by the Legislature for same to exist. There is no such provision.
Original proceeding brought by New State Ice Company and New Amsterdam Casualty Company, its insurance carrier, to review an award of the State Industrial Commission made to Clara B. Morris. Award sustained.
Cheek, Cheek & Cheek, Oklahoma City, for petitioners.
Fred M. Mock, Oklahoma City, Mac Q. Williamson, Atty. Gen., for respondents.
Clara B. Morris, as administratrix of the estate of Herbert I. Morris, obtained an award of $13,500 under the Death Benefits Provision of the Workmen's Compensation Law, 85 O.S.1951 § 1, et seq., and this proceeding was brought by the employer and its insurance carrier to review the award.
The sole question involved is the right of the insurance company to be subrogated to the action against a third-party tort-feasor. During the pendency of this action this question was fully determined in Updike Advertising System, Inc., v. State Industrial Commission, Okl., 282 P.2d 759, and the issues decided against the insurance carrier. The syllabus in that case is adopted as the syllabus herein and the award of the State Industrial Commission is sustained.
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Lee Way Motor Freight v. Yellow Transit Fr. Lines
...therefore cannot recover upon that theory. Updike Advertising System v. State Industrial Commission, Okl., 282 P.2d 759; New State Ice Co. v. Morris, Okl., 285 P.2d 855. The Updike case held that the obligation to pay the death benefit as required by the Act is in the nature of accidental d......
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Earnest, Inc. v. LeGrand
...HARGRAVE, JJ., concur. OPALA, J., concurs in result. BARNES, J., dissents. 1 282 P.2d 759 (Okl.1955). See also Oklahoma cases New State Ice Co. v. Morris, 285 P.2d 855 (Okl.1955) and Meadow Gold Dairy Products v. Conly, 288 P.2d 1115 (Okl.1955) each of which adopted the holding Updike Adver......