Opinion ID: 1163183
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Policy Behind Disability Awards

Text: Awards of permanent partial disability are governed by RCW 51.32.060 and RCW 51.32.080. RCW 51.32.060 provides a worker who is permanently and totally disabled will receive monthly payments during the period of the worker's disability based essentially on the worker's wages and family size. That the injured worker with a PPD award receives compensation in the form of monthly payments certainly suggests the award is designed to compensate the injured worker for loss of earning capacity. While Title 51 RCW does not specifically address how a prior pension may affect a contemporaneous claim for a PPD, RCW 51.32.060(4) does indicate the payment of a prior PPD award does not affect the entitlement of an injured worker to receive a pension for the ultimate effect of the original injury; RCW 51.32.080(4) also provides: If permanent partial disability compensation is followed by permanent total disability compensation, any portion of the permanent partial disability compensation which exceeds the amount that would have been paid the injured worker if permanent total disability compensation had been paid in the first instance, shall be deducted from the pension reserve of such injured worker and his or her monthly compensation payments shall be reduced accordingly. See Stuckey v. Department of Labor & Indus., 129 Wash.2d 289, 916 P.2d 399 (1996) (RCW 51.32.080(4) offsets prior award of permanent partial disability). As Title 51 does not specifically answer the question presented by this case, we must resort to the general policy of the Industrial Insurance Act to address the issues. Washington's Industrial Insurance Act is designed to insure against the loss of wage earning capacity. Adams v. Department of Labor & Indus., 128 Wash.2d 224, 233, 905 P.2d 1220 (1995); Leeper v. Department of Labor & Indus., 123 Wash.2d 803, 814, 872 P.2d 507 (1994); Fochtman v. Department of Labor & Indus., 7 Wash.App. 286, 293, 499 P.2d 255 (1972). This principle plainly animates the concepts of temporary and permanent total disability wherein regular monthly payments are made on a temporary or permanent basis to an injured worker in lieu of the wages lost by the injured worker due to injury. Although PPD awards set forth in RCW 51.32.080 sometimes are described in terms of the loss of or loss of use of a specific body part, the principle of loss of earning capacity has also been applied to PPD awards. [2] In Franks v. Department of Labor & Indus., 35 Wash.2d 763, 215 P.2d 416 (1950), we held an injured worker's loss of earning power or capacity to earn money was also present in the schedule of benefits for a permanent partial disability. In the case of permanent partial disability, the Legislature has taken loss of earning power into consideration by prescribing, in dollars, the compensation to be paid for certain specified disabilities. Franks, 35 Wash.2d at 774, 215 P.2d 416. This same principle was announced in Fochtman, 7 Wash.App. at 293-94, 499 P.2d 255. The majority opinion does not cite either Franks or Fochtman. To underscore this earning power basis for PPD awards, our cases also indicate an injured worker is entitled to recover no more than 100% of that worker's earning capacity as compensation for any injury or combination of injuries. This is consistent with the view temporary and total permanent disability and permanent partial disability all relate to loss of earning capacity. In Harrington v. Department of Labor & Indus., 9 Wash.2d 1, 113 P.2d 518 (1941), and Sorenson v. Department of Labor & Indus., 19 Wash.2d 571, 143 P.2d 844 (1943), we held once a worker is classified as entitled to a pension, the worker may not receive additional temporary total disability (time-loss) benefits under the Act if the worker recovers sufficiently to obtain employment and is thereafter injured. In Harrington, a worker injured his back and received a pension as permanently and totally disabled. The worker subsequently recovered sufficiently to go to work for a logging company where he was seriously injured. He filed a claim for medical expenses and time-loss compensation. We denied further compensation for the second injury stating: Having been classified as permanently and totally disabled, respondent could not, in law, be further disabled. He had already received the highest disability rating known to law, and upon that rating had been granted the highest compensation allowable under the workmen's compensation act.... The mere fact that a workman may recover from an injury which has been classified as a permanent total disability and for which he has been fully compensated, does not negative the fact that he has already received all the benefits that may be allowed for permanent and total disability. A subsequent lesser disability cannot be superimposed upon the maximum disability recognized by law. A contrary conclusion would result in an overlapping of classifications and in the allowance of double payment. Harrington, 9 Wash.2d at 7-8, 113 P.2d 518. Similarly, in Sorenson, the claimant injured his foot and was awarded a pension. The worker later returned to employment and again injured the same foot. He filed a second claim for compensation and the claim was rejected. We upheld the denial of benefits, stating: Having been classified as permanently totally disabled and having received the maximum allowed under the law therefor as a lump sum settlement, appellant may not be compensated out of the accident fund for further injuries received while in extrahazardous employment. Sorenson, 19 Wash.2d at 577-78, 143 P.2d 844. See also Peterson v. Department of Labor & Indus., 22 Wash.2d 647, 651, 157 P.2d 298 (1945) (a worker who received a pension is estopped from receiving further compensation for subsequent injuries). Thus, because a PPD award compensates for an injured worker's loss of earning capacity, an injured worker may receive only 100% of his or her lost earning capacity. Unless the Legislature specifically provides for the compensation of lost earning capacity in an amount in excess of 100%, as the Legislature did in RCW 51.32.060(4), an injured worker is barred from receiving benefits under the Industrial Insurance Act in excess of 100% of his or her lost earning capacity.