Opinion ID: 2101620
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: operation of section 51-b

Text: Section 51-B of Title 39 is the major component of Maine's Early Pay System, a 1983 amendment designed to reduce delay, lawyer involvement and litigation in compensating and rehabilitating injured workers. L.D. 1322, Statement of Fact (111th Legis.1983); Speakers' Select Committee on Workers' Compensation 5-8 (Jan. 17, 1983); Legis.Rec. 790-93 (1983). Because these employees did not lose any work time immediately upon the occurrence of their injuries, subsection 3 of that section applies. It provides: In cases where the employee did not lose time from work within 5 scheduled work days following the injury, compensation for incapacity under section 54-B [total incapacity] or 55-B [partial incapacity] is due and payable within 14 days of the date the employee asserts to the employer that the lost time is related to the injury. 39 M.R.S.A. § 51-B(3) (Pamph.1988). The statutory language could not be clearer: UPS and Combustion were obligated to pay compensation at some level to Stickles and Faloon within 14 days after the employees notified them that lost time was related to their injuries. In fact, neither UPS nor Combustion did so. If UPS and Combustion believed compensation was not payable, they had a clear statutory remedy: If the employer, prior to making payments under subsection 3, controverts the claim to compensation, he shall file with the commission, within 14 days after an event which gives rise to an obligation to make payments under subsection 3, a notice of controversy.... 39 M.R.S.A. § 51-B(7) (Pamph.1988). Employers who fail to use that remedy remain under the clear obligation to start payments at some level: If at the end of the 14-day period in subsection 3 ... the employer has not filed the notice required by this subsection, he shall begin payments as required under [that] subsectio[n]. Id. Here, since UPS and Combustion failed to file a notice of controversy, they were required to begin payments at some level within 14 days of their employees' notice that lost time was caused by a workrelated injury. This they admittedly failed to do. An employer who does begin payments within the 14 days gets a second chance to resist compensation: In the case of compensation for incapacity under subsection 3, he may cease payments and file with the commission a notice of controversy, only as provided in this subsection, no later than 44 days after an event which gives rise to an obligation to make payments under subsection 3. Id. Thus, although payments at some level must begin within the 14 days, the employer may discontinue them by filing a notice of controversy. Failure to file the notice within this extra 30 days carries sterner consequences: Failure to file the required notice of controversy prior to the expiration of the 44-day period, in the case of compensation under subsection 3, constitutes acceptance by the employer of the compensability of the injury or death. Id. (emphasis supplied). UPS and Combustion neither began any payments within the 14 days, nor filed any notice of controversy within the 44 days. They contend that by virtue of the emphasized language in the statute, the only consequence of their default is that they can no longer question whether the incidents in question were work-related, but that they can still challenge the level of compensation retroactively due their employees. Stickles and Faloon, on the other hand, argue that their employers must pay them benefits for total incapacity until the employers bring a successful petition for review.