Pridgen v. State Comp. Com'r

• Decision Date: 14 March 1939
• Docket Number: No. 8882.,8882.
• Court: West Virginia Supreme Court
• Parties: PRIDGEN . v. STATE COMPENSATION COM'R et al.

3 S.E.2d 522

PRIDGEN .

v.STATE COMPENSATION COM'R et al.

No. 8882.

Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

March 14, 1939.

Syllabus by the Court.

"To entitle one to participate in the Workmen's Compensation Fund, an application for compensation must be filed in. the office of the Compensation Commissioner within six months from and after the date of injury in a non-fatal case, except as provided in Code, 23-4-15." Young v. Compensation Com'r, W.Va., 3 S.E.2d 517.

Appeal from Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board.

Proceeding under the Workmen's Compensation Act by Robert Pridgen, claimant, opposed by the Branch Coal & Coke Company, employer. From an order of the Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board affirming an order of the Compensation Commissioner denying compensation, the claimant appeals.

Affirmed.

Charles P. McCabe, of Charleston, for appellant.

Clarence W. Meadows, Atty. Gen., and Marlyn E. Lugar, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen, for appellees.

FOX, President.

The claimant, while employed by the Branch Coal & Coke Company, and in the course of his employment, suffered an injury on the first day of July, 1937, the extent and nature of which are not involved in this appeal. The employer reported the injury to the Compensation Commissioner on October 25, 1937. On the 4th day of January, 1938, the claimant made out and signed an application, duly verified, asking for compensation on account of his injury and this application was filed in the office of the Compensation Commissioner on January 24, 1938. It will be noted that the application was verified three days after the expiration of the period within which it should have been filed at the office of the Compensation Commissioner under the provisions of Code, 23-4-15, and was not in fact filed in said office until twenty-one days later. Compensation was refused on account of the failure to file this application within the time required by law, the final order in the matter having been entered by the Compensation Commissioner on the 23rd day of June, 1938. The first order refusing compensation was entered on the 27th day of January, 1938, and the last and final order was entered upon a petition filed with the Compensation Commissioner on June 17, 1938. An appeal being taken from the final order, and the action of the Compensation Commissioner having beenupheld by the Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board, in an order entered on October 22, 1938, the case comes to this court on appeal from that order.

This case is...