Title: Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company v. Downey
Citation: 96 So. 2d 278
Docket Number: N/A
State: Alabama
Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court
Date: March 21, 1957

96 So. 2d 278 (1957)
GOODYEAR TIRE &amp; RUBBER COMPANY OF ALABAMA
v.
M. H. DOWNEY.
7 Div. 218.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
March 21, 1957.
Rehearing Denied June 27, 1957.
*279 Hood, Inzer, Martin &amp; Suttle, Gadsden, for appellant.
Hawkins &amp; Rhea, Gadsden, for appellee.
GOODWYN, Justice.
This proceeding was commenced in the circuit court of Etowah County for the recovery of benefits under the Alabama Workmen's Compensation Law, Code 1940, Tit. 26, § 253 et seq., as amended, by Morton H. Downey, appellee, for disability allegedly resulting from an accident which arose out of and in the course of his employment by Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company of Alabama, defendant below and petitioner here. The trial court awarded compensation to the plaintiff and the case is here on certiorari.
The Company admitted in its answer to the complaint that the relationship of employer and employee existed between it and the plaintiff at the time of the accident and that they were subject to the Workmen's Compensation Law of Alabama then in force; that plaintiff suffered the alleged accident "which arose out of and in the course of his employment, of which accident defendant had notice", and that on the date of said accident "the plaintiff was a married man living with his wife and two dependent children under 18 years of age." As to the accident and the injuries sustained by plaintiff, the answer alleges the following:
Evidence was taken orally before the trial court from which the court found, as a part of its finding of facts, § 304, Tit. 26, Code 1940, that plaintiff had suffered a "permanent partial disability to the extent of 35%". Judgment was thereupon entered awarding compensation at the rate of $21 per week for 300 weeks, it being ordered that accrued payments be paid in a lump sum less the payments already made by defendant to plaintiff. The defendant thereupon, within thirty days after rendition of the judgment, filed a motion to set aside the judgment and grant a new trial. One ground of the motion was that there was "no determination or finding of fact in said judgment of the difference, if any, between the average weekly earnings of plaintiff at the time of the injuries and the average weekly earnings he is able to earn in his partially disabled condition". Thereafter, more than thirty days after the judgment but while the motion for new trial was still pending, Code 1940, Tit. 13, § 119, the finding of facts was amended by adding thereto the following:
After making this amendment the motion for new trial was denied and the company brought certiorari.
There seems to be no question that the compensation to which plaintiff is entitled is controlled by schedule (C)6 of § 279, Tit. 26, Code 1940, as amended by Act No. 36, appvd. June 2, 1949, Acts 1949, pp. 47-52, which provided as follows:
It is insisted by the company that since the evidence shows that plaintiff, after his injury, received the same salary which he received prior thereto, that this excludes the idea that his ability to earn has been decreased as a result of his disability. While this might presumptively indicate that his ability to earn has not been impaired, the mere fact that his employer pays him the same earnings in his disabled condition as it did before he was injured is not the sole determining factor. The statute does not prescribe comparative wages received before and after the injury as the test of the employee's ability to earn. *281 Instead, the test is the difference between the average weekly earnings at the time of the injury and the average weekly earnings the employee "is able to earn in his partially disabled condition". It seems to us that this clearly excludes any notion of limiting the determination of a loss in ability to earn to the one question of wages actually earned after the injury as compared with those earned before. There are other factors which may be considered. In this connection we quote the following from Larson's Workmen's Compensation Law, Vol. 2, § 57.21, pp. 4-6:
See, also, § 57.22 and §§ 57.31 through 57.35, Larson's Workmen's Compensation Law, Vol. 2, pp. 7-17.
From Horovitz on Workmen's Compensation, page 276, is the following:
For discussions as to the right to compensation as affected by the fact that an injured employee earns or is offered as much as or more than before the injury, see 149 A.L.R. 413; 118 A.L.R. 731; 17 A.L.R. 205.
See, also, the discussions in Birmingham Post Co. v. McGinnis, 256 Ala. 473, 477, 55 So. 2d 507; Alabama By-Products Co. v. Landgraff, 248 Ala. 253, 257-258, 27 So. 2d 215; Nashville Bridge Co. v. Honeycutt, 246 Ala. 319, 325, 20 So. 2d 591; and Agricola Furnace Co. v. Smith, 239 Ala. 488, 492, 195 So. 743, 746. We quote the following from the Agricola case:
This brings us to the question whether the trial court's finding of a 35% decrease in earning capacity is supported by competent evidence. In resolving this question we are controlled by the established rule of review in workmen's compensation cases, thus stated in Bass v. Cowikee Mills, 259 Ala. 391, 393, 67 So. 2d 12, 13:
Although all factors which possibly might have influenced the trial court in determining the employee's earning capacity were not brought out in the evidence, we are unable to say that no evidence or reasonable inference from evidence bearing on the question was presented. In this situation the finding and judgment will not be disturbed.
Another finding which the company insists is not supported by legal evidence is as follows:
While the evidence on this point was meager, we do not think, in the light of the stated rule of review, we would be warranted in saying that it was insufficient to support the finding of the trial court.
We here note that subsec. (A) of § 279, as amended by Act No. 36, supra, provided for a maximum compensation of "fifty-five percent of the average weekly earnings received at the time of injury, subject to a maximum compensation of twenty-one dollars per week." It was admitted, and was found by the court, that plaintiff's average weekly earnings for 52 weeks prior to the accident were $99.40 per week. Subsection (H) of § 279, as amended by Act No. 36, supra, provided as follows:
The effect of this, of course, is to raise, in the case of an employee with as many as two dependents, the percentage provided for in subsection (C)6 from fifty-five percent to sixty-five percent of the difference between the average weekly earnings at the time of the injury and the average weekly earnings the employee is able to earn in his partially disabled condition. If plaintiff's ability to earn has been reduced by 35%, as found by the trial court, it is apparent that the plaintiff would be entitled to the maximum weekly payment of $21 authorized under subsection (A) of Section 279, as amended by Act No. 36, supra. The agreed average weekly earnings at the time of the injury being $99.40, the difference between this and the "average weekly earnings he is able to earn in his partially disabled condition" ($99.40 less 35% thereof, or $64.61) is $34.79. Sixty-five percent of $34.79 equals $22.61. Accordingly, plaintiff would be entitled to the maximum of $21 per week if his ability to earn in his partially disabled condition has been decreased by 35% as found by the trial court. We make this observation to show that the award made by the court conformed to the court's findings.
The judgment of the circuit court is affirmed.
Affirmed.
LIVINGSTON, C. J., and SIMPSON and COLEMAN, JJ., concur.
On Application for Rehearing and Motion to Modify Judgment of Affirmance.
PER CURIAM.
The order granting certiorari provided "that the judgment of the Circuit Court of Etowah County will be superseded upon the *284 defendant, Goodyear Tire &amp; Rubber Company of Alabama, a corporation, entering into a supersedeas bond in the sum of $5,000, with good and sufficient surety or sureties, payable to the plaintiff, M. H. Downey, and conditioned to prosecute the appeal by certiorari to effect, or, if it fails therein, to satisfy such judgment and costs as the Supreme Court may render in the premises. Said bond to approved by the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Etowah County, Alabama."
The prescribed bond was entered into, the condition thereof being as follows:
The judgment of affirmance contains the following provision:
The award of 10% damages was made pursuant to Code 1940, Tit. 7, § 814, as amended, which provides as follows:
Petitioner insists it was error to render said judgment for damages for the reason that § 814, supra, applies only to cases which come here by appeal; that this case is here for review by certiorari, not by appeal; hence § 814 has no application.
It does not appear that this court has rendered a written opinion on this question. However, since the case of DeBardeleben Coal Corp. v. Richards, 1948, 251 Ala. 324, 37 So. 2d 121, straight judgments of affirmance in workmen's compensation cases have consistently included the 10% damages provided for in § 814, supra. It further appears that this court, in the DeBardeleben case, included, for the first time, a provision for giving a supersedeas bond. Prior to that case such bonds were not provided for and judgments of affirmance in workmen's compensation cases did not include the 10% damages. In each subsequent case involving the review of a judgment awarding compensation a bond has been provided for. The practice has been for a justice of this court (§ 18, Tit. 13, Code 1940) to grant the writ of certiorari as a matter of course, at the same time fixing the amount of the bond, to be approved by the clerk of the circuit court. Such bond has generally been fixed in double the amount of the judgment for accrued compensation payments and the estimated number of payments to accrue between the time of the judgment and a decision here. As a rule such estimate has included payments accruing within twelve months after the judgment. The 10% damages have been assessed against the defendant-petitioner and the surety on all payments which have accrued up to the time of affirmance.
Although no opinion was written on the question in the DeBardeleben case, the court there decided it contrary to movant's insistence and the decision has been followed in each subsequent case. We are not persuaded that that decision should be changed.
In Agricola Furnace Co. v. Smith, 239 Ala. 488, 195 So. 743, 744, the plaintiff obtained a judgment against the defendant in a workman's compensation case. The defendant brought the case here for review by certiorari pursuant to § 7571, Code 1923 (§ 297, Tit. 26, Code 1940). Thereafter the defendant moved to dismiss the cause and vacate the writ. The plaintiff objected on the ground that it would be prejudicial to his interest, as he had entered cross-assignments of error which he desired to have considered. The motion to vacate was denied, the court holding that cross-errors may be assigned when a workman's compensation case is here for review on certiorari the same as if it were here on direct appeal. In so holding the court applied the rule that "the dismissal of an appeal by the appellant does not carry the case so far as it is affected by an assignment of cross-errors". The right to assign cross-errors in cases on appeal is given by Code 1940, Tit. 7, § 746, providing as follows:
The holding in Agricola makes it clear that the authorized "appeal by certiorari" in workmen's compensation cases is subject, at least for some purposes, to procedures prescribed for cases coming here by direct appeal. As there said:
"While we recognize that appeal and certiorari are not identical (Ex parte Woodward Iron Co., 211 Ala. 74, 99.So. 97), yet the statute itself by its language indicates a legislative intent that the method of review be considered in the nature of a limited appeal. Section 6091, Code of 1923 [Code 1940, Tit. 7, § 746, supra], was placed in the Code in its present form after the adoption of the Workmen's Compensation Act, Code 1923, § 7534 et seq. [Code 1940, Tit. 26, § 253 et seq.], and cross-assignments of error are permitted thereunder without appellant's consent. Nelson v. Boe, 226 Ala. 582, 148 So. 311.
Code 1940, Tit. 7, § 793, provides as follows:
It seems to us that if § 746, Tit. 7, supra, applies to workmen's compensation cases *287 there is no sound reason why § 793 should not also apply. The statute authorizing a review (§ 297, Tit. 26, subdiv. A, supra) provides that "the decision of the judge hearing the same shall be conclusive and binding between the parties, subject to the right of appeal in this article provided for." [Emphasis supplied.] Subdiv. E of § 297 provides as follows:
The judgment against a defendant in a workman's compensation case, certainly to the extent of the accrued payments, is a judgment for the payment of money which, except for the right of "appeal by certiorari", is then due to be paid the plaintiff, and if not paid within ten days execution must be issued thereon "unless otherwise directed by the court or the judge presiding at the trial of the cause or by the written direction of owners of the judgment or his attorney of record." Code 1940, Tit. 7, § 508; see, also, §§ 510 and 511, Tit. 7, providing when execution may issue before prescribed time. Both §§ 508 and 793, Tit. 7, supra, were in existence when the Workmen's Compensation Act was adopted. From a consideration of that Act, particularly § 297, Tit. 26, and its objectives, and in view of the decision in the Agricola case, we think a holding that § 793, Tit. 7, applies to a judgment in a workman's compensation case is reasonable and in accord with the legislative intent. Accordingly, the giving of a supersedeas bond is essential to a stay of the judgment. This means that the granting of the writ in these cases does not, ipso facto, operate as a stay as does the granting of the common-law writ. Webb &amp; Stagg v. McPherson &amp; Co., 142 Ala. 540, 543-544, 38 So. 1009; John v. State, 1 Ala. 95, 97; Payne v. Martin, 1 Stew. 407, 410; People v. Sturgis, 39 Misc. 448, 80 N.Y.S. 194, 197; 14 C.J.S. Certiorari § 108, p. 245; Ferris, Extraordinary Legal Remedies, Certiorari, § 179, pp. 205, 206. In that respect, the statute has changed the operation of the common-law writ in the review of judgments in workmen's compensation cases. In such cases a stay can be effectuated only by giving the statutory supersedeas bond. If the order granting the writ calls for such bond, the execution of the bond is not a condition to the issuance of the writ. Rather, it is the fixing of the amount of the supersedeas bond. If the petitioner-defendant declines to give the bond, the writ may nevertheless issue; but in that situation there is no stay of the judgment.
We would make it clear that we are not now passing on the question whether this court is without authority, in its discretion, to require, as a condition to the issuance of the writ in compensation cases, the giving by petitioner (appellant) of a bond to indemnify the appellee against loss, in event petitioner declines to give a supersedeas bond. It is to be noted that under the common law it is a proper exercise of discretion to impose, as a condition to the granting of the writ, the giving of a bond for costs and the indemnification of the defendant in certiorari. Webb &amp; Stagg v. McPherson &amp; Co., supra; Payne v. Martin, supra. See Ex parte Pittman Const. Co., 28 Ala.App. 134, 180 So. 725, certiorari denied 236 Ala. 22, 180 So. 728.
We are constrained to hold that the procedure followed since the DeBardeleben case is proper. The application for rehearing and motion for modification of the judgment of affirmance are, therefore, due to be denied.
Application for rehearing and motion to modify denied.
All the Justices concur except STAKELY, J., not sitting.