Opinion ID: 1849498
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: on motion to correct judgment so as to provide for the payment of interest

Text: In an opinion rendered in this cause on June 9, 1958, the Court reversed the judgment of the lower court and the order of the Workmen's Compensation Commission denying the claim of the appellant Mrs. Josephine Goodnite and her fifteen-year old son against the Farm Equipment Company for death benefits under the Workmen's Compensation Act, on account of the death of Samuel Vincent Goodnite, deceased; and a judgment was entered here awarding death benefits to the claimants and remanding the cause to the commission for the enforcement of the award. See Goodnite v. Farm Equipment Company (Miss. 1958), 103 So.2d 391. A suggestion of error was filed by the appellees on June 12, 1958, and was overruled by this Court on July 3, 1958. Nothing was said in the opinion rendered on June 9, 1958, or in the judgment entered upon the minutes of the Court, concerning the allowance of interest on the past due installments of death benefits which had accrued prior to the date of the rendition of judgment awarding such death benefits. On August 30, 1958, the appellant filed a motion to correct the judgment rendered on June 9, 1958, so as to provide for the allowance of interest on each weekly installment of death benefits which had accrued prior to the rendition of the judgment, and so as to provide for the allowance of interest on the lump sum payment of $100 to be made to the widow and the $350 funeral expenses provided for in Section 6998-13, paragraphs (a) and (b), Code of 1942, Recompiled. Proper notice of the filing of the motion was given to opposing counsel; and the appellees' attorneys have filed an answer to the motion and a reply brief. In their reply brief the appellees' attorneys say that there is no legal basis for the allowance of interest on the installments of death benefits which accrued prior to the rendition of the judgment of this Court awarding such death benefits; that no judgment awarding compensation to the claimants had been rendered, either by the commission or by the circuit court, prior to the rendition of the judgment of this Court on June 9, 1958; that interest is entirely statutory; and that the Mississippi Workmen's Compensation Act contains no provision relating to the payment of interest on past due installments of death benefits prior to the rendition of a judgment awarding such benefits to the claimants. (Hn 3) But we think that the employer and its insurance carrier are liable for the payment of interest on each weekly installment of the award from its due date until paid. This Court was held in numerous cases that, when a claim is controverted and an award of death benefits is made by the commission and affirmed by the court on appeal, interest should be allowed on each weekly installment of the award at the rate of six per cent per annum from its due date until paid. See J. & B. Mfg. Co. v. Cochran, 216 Miss. 336, 62 So.2d 378; M.T. Reed Construction Co. v. Martin, 215 Miss. 472, 63 So.2d 528; LaDew, et al. v. LaBorde, 216 Miss. 598, 63 So.2d 825; Sunnyland Contracting Co., Inc., v. Davis, 221 Miss. 744, 74 So.2d 858, 75 So.2d 638, 75 So.2d 923; Russell v. Southeastern Utilities Service Co. (Miss. 1957), 92 So. 2d 877; Lee v Haltom Lbr. Co. (Miss. 1957), 93 So.2d 641; and Dependents of Harris v. Suggs, (Miss. 1958), 102 So.2d 696. Section 6998-26, which provides for a court review of the order of the commission upon appeal by either party to the controversy, expressly provides that, if upon review prejudicial error be found, the judgment or award of the commission shall be reversed and the court shall enter such judgment or award as the commission should have entered. In the case that we have here, this Court found prejudicial error, and reversed the judgment of the circuit court and the order of the commission and entered a judgment in favor of the claimants. If an award had been made by the commission in favor of the claimants on the original hearing, under the rule laid down in the cases cited above, each weekly installment of death benefits then due and unpaid would have borne interest from its due date until paid at the rate of six per cent per annum. There is no sound reason why interest should not be allowed on each such weekly installment of death benefits from the due date thereof until paid in a case where the award is made by the commission pursuant to a judgment of the court, as well as in a case where the award is made by the commission on the original hearing. Section 6998-19, Code of 1942, Recompiled, provides that: (a) Compensation under this act shall be paid periodically, promptly, in the usual manner, and directly to the person entitled thereto, without an award, except where liability to pay compensation is controverted by the employer. (b) The first installment of compensation shall become due on the fourteenth day after the employer has notice, as provided in Section 12 (Sec. 6998-18), of the injury or death, on which date all compensation then due shall be paid. Thereafter, compensation shall be paid in installments, semi-monthly, except where the commission determines that payment in installments should be made monthly or at some other period. (Hn 4) Interest in a case of this kind is not imposed as a penalty for wrong doing; it is allowed as compensation for the detention of money overdue. Miller, State Revenue Agent, v. Henry, Insurance Commissioner, 139 Miss. 651, 103 So. 203; Rubel, et al., Executors, v. Rubel, 221 Miss. 848, 75 So.2d 59. In other jurisdictions, in which workmen's compensation acts have no provision with respect to interest, the general interest statute has been applied. See Sunny Point Packing Co. v. Faigh (1933), 63 F.2d 921, and cases cited. Section 36, Code of 1942, provides that: The legal rate of interest on all notes, accounts and contracts shall be six per cent per annum; but contracts may be made, in writing, for a payment of a rate of interest as great as eight per centum per annum.   . Section 6998-19, Code of 1942, which requires that compensation be paid periodically, promptly, in the usual manner, and directly to the person entitled thereto, creates a liability upon the employer immediately upon the death of the employee for payment according to the terms of the statute and a right in the beneficiary or beneficiaries to that payment. The liability of the employer is of the nature of a debt, and the right of the beneficiary is that of a creditor in that debt. The liability is as definitely fixed as to amount, time and binding force, as if the employer had executed its notes due for the payment prescribed. The employer has the right under the statute to contest the matter of those payments before the commission and in the courts. If it can show that the injury or death does not come within the law, it escapes all payment and all liability for all payment; but when it contests such payments, and the courts decide that the injury or death comes within the provisions of the law, the judgment relates by the force of the statute to the time prescribed by the statute. Interest is due from the date of the maturity of each unpaid payment on the sum due. See Consolidated Underwriters v. Saxon (Com. of Appeals of Texas, 1924), 265 S.W. 143. In this case interest at the rate of six per cent per annum was due the claimants on the unpaid installments from the due date of each installment, as fixed by the statute, to the date of payment. The motion to correct judgment, so as to provide that each weekly installment of the award of death benefits shall bear interest at the rate of six per cent per annum from its due date until paid, is therefore sustained, and the attorneys' fee heretofore allowed shall include 33-1/3% of the amount of interest thus accured. As to that part of the motion which relates to the allowance of interest on the lump sum payment of $100 to the widow and the claim for funeral expenses, the motion itself shows that, by agreement, the carrier has made the lump sum payment of $100 and has paid the funeral expenses without any order of the commission. We therefore pretermit any further discussion of the allowance of interest on those two items, and the motion as to the allowance of interest on those items is overruled. Motion to correct judgment so as to provide for payment of interest sustained in part and overruled in part.