Title: IN THE MATTER OF THE DEATH OF REEDER

State: oklahoma

Issuer: Oklahoma Supreme Court

Document:

IN THE MATTER OF THE DEATH OF REEDER  IN THE MATTER OF THE DEATH OF REEDER 2009 OK 54 217 P.3d 113 Case Number: 105229 Decided: 07/07/2009 THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA IN THE MATTER OF THE DEATH OF LOUIS REEDER: NAOMI REEDER, Petitioner, v. ZINC CORPORATION OF AMERICA; ACE AMERICAN INSURANCE COMPANY and THE WORKERS' COMPENSATION COURT, Respondents. CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF CIVIL APPEALS, DIVISION I, APPEAL FROM THE WORKERS' COMPENSATION COURT, STATE OF OKLAHOMA, HONORABLE RICHARD L. BLANCHARD, TRIAL JUDGE ¶0 Recipient of a Workers' Compensation Court death benefit award requested prejudgment interest be added to the award of benefits. The trial judge of the Workers' Compensation Court denied recipient's request and the Court of Civil Appeals sustained the denial. In her petition for certiorari, death benefit recipient contends that CERTIORARI PREVIOUSLY GRANTED; OPINION OF THE COURT OF CIVIL APPEALS VACATED; JUDGMENT DENYING REQUEST FOR PREJUDGMENT INTEREST SUSTAINED. W.E. Sparks, Tulsa, Oklahoma, for Petitioner, Harry Leroy Endicott, Donald A. Bullard, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, for Respondents. REIF, J.: ¶1 The issue presented on certiorari review is whether the Workers' Compensation Act, ¶2 This latter controversy centers on language in § 3.6 that provides "interest shall be computed pursuant to Section 727 of Title 12 of the Oklahoma Statutes." More particularly, the question is whether this language incorporates all of the provisions of § 727 concerning interest on judgments (including prejudgment interest), or just the provisions which specify how interest is to be computed. ¶3 The reference to § 727 at issue is found in subsection (G) of § 3.6. The complete text of subsection (G) states: "For purposes of this section, interest shall be computed pursuant to Section 727 of Title 12 of the Oklahoma Statutes." The language "this section" clearly refers to § 3.6 and one of the "purposes" of § 3.6 is to specify the circumstances under which interest is allowed on an award. Significantly, all the authorizations of interest in § 3.6 - subsections (A), (C), and (D) - involve post-award interest. ¶4 To understand the language in subsection (G) that "interest shall be computed pursuant to Section 727" it is necessary to know what § 727 says about "computing" interest. ¶5 It is well settled that words used in a statute are to be understood in their ordinary sense, except when a contrary intention plainly appears, or when given a special definition by law. ¶6 Our conclusion that subsection 3.6(G) was merely prescribing the use of the rate of interest as set forth in § 727, is further supported by another provision in the 1993 amendment to § 3.6. The 1993 amendment deleted the fixed interest rate of 18% that had previously been applied to interest in certain post-award cases in the 1991 version and added the language: "For purposes of this section, interest shall be computed pursuant to Section 727 of Title 12 of the Oklahoma Statutes." ¶7 It has long been recognized that the amendment of an act in general, or of a particular section of an act, implies merely a change of its provision on the same subject to which the act or section relates. Piskey v. State ex rel Martin, ¶8 Mrs. Reeder's quest to add prejudgment interest to the death benefit award has been predicated on a perceived intent by the Legislature to treat Workers' Compensation awards "uniformly" with personal injury judgments. She points out that such uniform treatment is manifest because the Legislature did not expressly limit interest in subsection (G) to post-judgment interest. To be sure, the Legislature did not use the modifying term "post-judgment" to describe the interest that "shall be computed pursuant to Section 727." However, as noted, the Legislature did state that the computation of interest computed pursuant to § 727 was "[f]or purposes of this section [i.e 3.6]." That is, any interest pursuant to § 727 was for interest authorized by § 3.6. ¶9 In conclusion, we hold that the language in subsection 3.6(G) of the Workers' Compensation Act, directing that "interest shall be computed pursuant to Section 727 of Title 12," means that interest provided in § 3.6 shall be computed using the rate of interest set forth in § 727. This interpretation is dictated by the text of subsection 3.6(G), the ordinary meaning of the words therein and the legislative history of § 3.6. These same considerations reveal no intent on the part of the Legislature for § 727 to serve as a general source of authority to award interest on Workers' Compensation awards. Accordingly, the Workers' Compensation Court did not err in denying the request of Naomi Reeder to add prejudgment interest to an award of death benefits, as such interest is not authorized by § 3.6 of the Workers' Compensation Act or any other provision of the Workers' Compensation Act. The judgment denying the request to add prejudgment interest to the award is SUSTAINED. ¶10 EDMONDSON, C.J., TAYLOR, V.C.J., HARGRAVE, KAUGER, WATT, WINCHESTER, COLBERT, and REIF, JJ., concur. ¶11 OPALA, J., concur in part; dissent in part. FOOT