Case ID: wv-ct-cl_4/html/0039-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "MERRIMAN S. SMITH, Judge. ROBERT L. BLAND, Judge,", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

(No. 582-S
    JACK L. and MARTHA HENDRICKSON, Claimants, v. STATE ROAD COMMISSION, Respondent.
    
      Opinion filed April 17, 1947
    
   MERRIMAN S. SMITH, Judge.

On April 6, 1946, a prison labor crew, working for the state road commission on route 88, at Bethlehem, Ohio county, West Virginia, upon setting off a blast threw rocks and debris striking the roof and downspout on the home of Jack L. and Martha Hendrickson, damaging it to the extent of $22.15.

The Allemannia Fire Insurance Company paid claimants under a loan agreement the above mentioned sum.

The itemized items covering the cost of material and labor appear to be just and the claim is one deserving of payment.

The state agency concurred in this claim and the claim is approved by the attorney general. Therefore, an award in the sum of twenty-two dollars and fifteen cents ($22.15) is hereby made to the claimants Jack L. and Martha Hen-drickson.

ROBERT L. BLAND, Judge,

dissenting.

The record of the claim for which an award is made in this case by a majority of the court, prepared by the state road commission and filed with the clerk on March 14, 1947, contains a letter addressed to the state road commission under date of December 6, 1946, which reads in part as follows:

“So far as I am concerned the matter is closed. I was reimbursed by rny insurance company to the amount of $22.15. I do not seek any additional claim against the Road Commission.”

The majority opinion discloses on its face that the claim described in the record, concurred in by the agency concerned and approved by an assistant attorney general as a claim which, within the meaning of the court act, should be paid by the state, was paid by the Allemannia Fire Insurance Company.

I see no reason to pay the claim in question twice.

No question of subrogation is presented by the record.

I cannot, for reasons assigned, agree to recommend the claim to the Legislature.